Toward Tomorrow
by archersploosh
Summary: Their feudal fairy tale had reached it's happily ever after, but what happens after The End? Kagome's fiery and passionate personality vanishes after a great loss, Inuyasha is left to bury the remains, and their only child faces the same prejudice his father endured. Japan is on the brink of war, and the birth of a new jewel is fated to be.
1. Chapter 1

_Summary: Their feudal fairy tale had reached it's happily ever after, but what happens after The End? Kagome's fiery and passionate personality vanishes after a great loss, Inuyasha is left to bury the remains, and their only child faces the same prejudice his father endured. Japan is on the brink of war, and the birth of a new jewel is fated to be._

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is my first fan fiction! I'm pretty excited, although I have a problem with keeping true to my weekly update policy, which is why I inevitably end up removing all stories just to avoid feeling guilty for not updating, but this story I really thought about, so go easy on me. Also, it's terrible, but if I'm ever being lazy about updates, reviews really get me going in a weird writers way. So review plenty, because I'm vain and I love it. I will warn you, for those of you who actually read the author's notes (which I am not one of. Yes, I admit it. I don't read the author's notes.) there is character death. A lot of death, actually, if we're going for a body count. Anyways, enjoy! And I'm not really sure if it's required to add this, I mean, come on, we all know some little nobody from Chicago certainly does not own Inuyasha. None the less, I will say it, but only once! I do not own Inuyasha.

 **Please don't skip this story because I haven't shifted at the beginning of my paragraphs. I have no idea how. keeps deleting them from my stories. If anyone could tell me how to fix this, I would be eternally grateful.**

Alright, that's the end of my A/N! Don't forget to follow and review!

XOXO

Archersploosh

* * *

 _ **TOWARD TOMORROW**_

"As I live in this world, I know that things will continue to change, but I'm not worried about the future. I'm going to spend every day with Inuyasha. No matter what, now I know the two of us will be together, as we head toward tomorrow."

 **Five Years Later**

How naïve she had been. Cradling the cold babe to her chest, she did not weep, but silently shed tears. Her once lively and passionate blue eyes bore into nothingness. She felt dead. How many had this been? She shivered at the thought of burying yet another child. The forest of Inuyasha was quickly becoming a graveyard for their progeny. Not one child since they first produced a fetus within her had survived past five months. And this one was no different. A little boy this time, still so small, so underdeveloped. She didn't dare peek down at the bundle in her arms. It would only renew her grief. Instead she remembered fondly the idea of being a mother to a healthy baby, a little silver headed girl she had dreamt about once upon a time. That, of course, had been the first child to die.

Kagome had become pregnant quickly, the consummation of their marriage procuring the first. At the time she hadn't known, but Inuyasha, being the half-demon he was, could smell the change in her scent, and hear the extra heartbeat. He'd been coming home from a demon extermination with Miroku one day when he froze a few hundred feet from his hut that resided on the outskirts of Edo, closest to his forest and the dry well. Miroku immediately was on guard, expecting an attack upon the village, only to be surprised when in the blink of an eye Inuyasha had raced to his wife and knelt down and pressed his face into her abdomen.

Back then, they had been excited. Kagome had cried that day in her husband's arms, a smile so wide across her face, it hurt. And now, everything hurt. Everything since their first child's death had hurt a great deal. When she had just been recovering from the first death, she found it in herself to explain to Inuyasha what she'd learned from her sex ed classes. The girl she bore was a miscarriage, because she hadn't fully developed and never reached the third trimester. Inuyasha had found the terms confusing, the era difference and new vocabulary being one part, and the other because he was male. He didn't quite understand at first, but as more babies kept dying, he found himself fully aware of the female anatomy and the progression of a fetus until, at least, five months into it.

Kagome was brought out of her mourning by the sound of Inuyasha's footsteps. He approached slowly, already scenting the death a mile away. She avoided his teary gaze and instead chose to focus on the blood that pooled around her. Her night robe, once white, was now caked and dried with blood. She cringed at the thought of becoming ill again from such a large amount of blood loss. Not that it mattered, she reminded herself, because she wasn't going to try anymore. This was it, she decided. The Gods did not want them to be parents.

"Kagome," Inuyasha reached for her, stopping short of her shoulders and pulling away. He was familiar with this. She felt disgusted with herself whenever this happened, like it was her fault. Any reassurance would fall on deaf ears. "I'm sorry I was away." He begged her for forgiveness. Only a few times had he been away when she'd miscarried. Instead of weeping and rehashing her own sorrows, he took the lifeless child from her arms and proceeded towards the forest. "I'll be back."

When he did return, Kagome was still in the corner of the hut, hugging her knees to her chest. Before they could address one another, he began to clean up. First, Kagome. He brought her to the stream and bathed her, clothed her, and tucked her into clean bedding, facing her away from the sight of her body's failures. After the hut had been rid of the sight of her blood, he cleansed his own hands before bringing his wife up to a sitting position.

"It's okay, Kagome," He said, positioning himself behind her against the wall, giving her a warm body to lean against. He wrapped his arms around her middle, now much flatter without the bump of an infant. He allowed himself a moment before continuing, "We can try again. It's not your fault."

"No," She spoke without wavering, her voice steady. "Not again."

"No?" Inuyasha's ears turned down at the thought. He'd been so happy the first time. Of course, the Gods could only grant him so much happiness. He was, after all, an abomination; a half-breed. The Gods had granted him a loving wife, a partner to ease the pain for a few decades. He should be grateful for that much. Another pang of loss hit him. Inuyasha so often forgot that his mark never took in claiming her as his mate. He didn't have the ability to claim a mate, being half-human. He was destined to die alone, but they'd accepted those terms. He'd have his few decades with her, watching her age and die, and when her time came, he would wish her happiness in her afterlife with hopes that she'd wait for him. Not that he ever planned on living much longer after she passed. This he kept to himself. Kagome didn't need to know.

"I don't want to try anymore." Kagome hardened her heart, braving the outburst she expected from her husband, only it didn't come.

"Okay," He agreed.

 **Five Years Later**

"Woah!" Inuyasha caught Kagome before she face planted into the dirt road. "Careful, ya drunk!" He laughed, also a bit drunk from sake. Whenever another couple announced a pregnancy within the village, the two would often find themselves getting drunk to forget their past pains. Eventually they had moved on from their determination to procreate. Instead, Kagome focused on medicine and often traversed Japan with Inuyasha, much like they had when they were teenagers. They found purpose in their lives once again, protecting villages that required the help of a priestess and behaved half-demon.

"I'm fine," Kagome hiccuped, "I'm fine," She giggled, quickly interrupted by another hiccup.

"Yeah, yeah," He lifted her over his shoulder, patting her butt to make her squirm. "Come on, we at least gotta make it back home."

"Hey, wait, Inuyasha," Kagome's voice sobered somewhat, but the hiccup that followed betrayed her, "The moon is so full tonight." Her breath created a clowd of warmth across his neck as she bent herself awkwardly to peer up into the sky. She often tracked the moon phases to be prepared for Inuyasha's human nights. "Huh, it's a blue moon." She noted, "And after a hunter's moon of all timing..." Kagome trailed off, and hiccuped once more.

"Whatever, wench," Inuyasha flipped her over again, hauling her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "You talk too much sometimes."

"Hey!"

Once inside, he deposited her onto their shared futon and began to undress her fervently, kissing every inch of flesh he exposed. She didn't deny him, instead assisting him with his own clothing. She'd barely shimmied out of her priestess garb before he flipped her over and felt for her entrance. He felt so heated, so needy, his blood rushing far faster than it usually did. Gripping Kagome's hips, he pushed himself inside her, filling her completely. She arched her back in response, bending down onto her elbows for a deeper penetration.

With every thrust, she met him halfway. With every cry, an echo was returned. They loved each other as one, completely relishing in their love-making. As Kagome's climax approached, so did Inuyasha's. She panted, gripping their sheets in her fists as she twitched into orgasm. The sight she provided him drove him over. His claws lengthened, his eyes bled red, and he came into her hard, thrusting deeply. He groaned, leaning over her and placing hot, open mouthed kisses along her neck and back. They slowly changed position, Kagome lying flat on her stomach with Inuyasha still inside her, the last of his cum filling her as he pulled out, his seed spilling from her, leaving a hot, sticky trail across her sex.

"Fuck," He swore, lying on top of her. His eyes returned to gold, and his claws retracted. Had she seen his face, she would have noticed the change in his demonic blood. The scent of her blood alerted him that he'd nicked the skin on her hips again, "Sorry."

"Shh," Kagome giggled, "Do it again." So he did.

 **Five Years Later**

"Mama," A small boy with gold eyes and short cropped black hair called out, wearing identical robes to his father, "This one?" He held up an herb for his mother to see, his dog ears twitching in the summer breeze.

"Very good, Eiji," She smiled and nodded approvingly before bending over her own patch of herbs to harvest, but she stilled for a moment and searched the horizon. Shaking it off, Kagome went back to picking herbs.

The boy beamed, happy to please his mother. She didn't smile easily, this he'd learned quickly. For his age Eiji was an old soul. While only four years old, he understood more than his parents thought. For instance, he was aware of what the stones circling the Goshinboku meant. What he didn't understand was why none of them had names.

Returning to his task, he plucked herbs carefully, making sure to pull from the root and not the stems. His mother's light humming followed an easy tune, one he knew was from her past; the future. Her time travels were his bed time stories, and yet, he could never fully wrap his mind around the fact that his human mother had seen the world five hundred years from now. In time, Eiji would. His demonic blood granted him that, or so his parents assumed. At birth they easily titled him quarter-demon.

It wasn't until his third birthday did they realize he was just as strong as a half-demon. They'd gone to visit Kouga and Ayame along the way to the demon slayer village, where Sango and Miroku had rebuilt the village and trained a new group of slayers. While his parents talked with other grown-ups, Eiji had run off with wolf cubs to play. His parents had only been alerted seconds before his head smacked the earth below that something was amiss. Of course, they panicked and babied him, but the fall from the curve of a mountain side to the ground, a good sixty feet below hadn't hurt more than if he'd fallen from the top of a hut. Kagome and Inuyasha were proud. More than that, they were grateful. His strength meant he was more than half of them. He was strong enough to survive.

"Eiji," A townsman nodded in hello as he passed, seeming rushed.

"Hi," Eiji smiled in return, knowing something must have been urgent. No one came this far out of Edo to find his mother unless it was an emergency. Knowing all too well that this meant their foraging was over, he quickly loaded his herbs into his basket and stood to follow his mother.

"Milady, Lady Kaede has sent me to inform you she is in need of assistance. The birthing has become complicated." The man, a short field worker, was not the usual messenger, meaning there was more to it.

"And?" Kagome remained calm. Most births in this era were complicated, seeing as most women bore a child before they were fifteen. She held back a sigh, remembering the first time she came through the well. Back then she would have been expected to wed, bed, and birth within the year had she not been a priestess. How foolish of these people, she thought. When she came through the well the last time, she'd romanticized the idea of jumping through time and living out her days with Inuyasha, all during the feudal era. This time period was infuriating. No one washed, a woman was a possession, and there was so much death. And yet, she didn't regret it.

"There's demon approaching," He wiped the sweat from his brow, "Lady Kaede says they'll arrive within the hour."

"Shit," Kagome swore, cursing herself for ignoring the feeling of evil in the air. Having shared herself with Inuyasha and bearing a child, she no longer possessed the abilities to sense and purify demonic auras. Despite this, sometimes she still got this feeling in her stomach that there was evil swirling around her. Focusing on the task at hand, she formed a plan. "Rally the strongest along the border. I want all hands available in levels, growing smaller around Rin's home. Ten men to guide women and children to the caves. Inuyasha should be back soon." Turning to her son, she knelt before him. "Eiji, go with the women and children. Stay in the caves until either myself or your father come to retrieve you and the others. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mama," Eiji nodded, receiving a kiss on his brow before being ushered off with the townsman.


	2. Chapter 2

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Alright, I'm posting a day early, thanks to my work schedule. I try to aim for weekly updates on Mondays, but obviously things do come up and so when these things happen, I will try to post before the event instead of after, but no promises. Parties tend to take precedence over posting, and with Fall and Winter coming up pretty soon, that means parties. Not to mention, my best friend is finally turning twenty-one this September, so yeah, sorry if I post two or three days late once or twice throughout this story. I'm thinking maybe sixteen to eighteen chapters? I'm not sure yet. There's still holes to fill. Anyways, here it is, and if anyone call tell me why this site won't even let me put the abbreviation for it's name into a document, that'd be splendid. I don't know if anyone noticed that in my author's note from the first chapter or not, but it really ticked me off.

'Kay, thanks everyone! Keep reading, and don't forget to follow and review!

XOXO

Archersploosh

* * *

 _ **TOWARD TOMORROW**_

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin screamed at the top of her lungs. Her shrill cries rang throughout the hut as she grunted through her next contraction. "Lord Sesshomaru!"

"Child, ye need to push!" Kaede urged the young mother. Rin's labor had been tiring on the old woman, having assisted her for nearly eighteen hours now. She had assistance for the first sixteen, but after the elder priestess sensed the oncoming demons, she shooed the young women away for evacuation. Ever since word of two Shikon priestesses coming from Edo, young priestesses from across Japan had come to train under Kaede and Kagome, learning their spiritual and purification from the elder, and medicinal and physical education from the latter. Without their assistance now, Kaede was left to do the work of three sets of hands.

"No!" Rin ground her teeth, resisting her body's natural urge to push, "No! Not without him!" It was very apparent whom exactly she meant. Certainly not the father of her baby, but her own guardian. Rin collapsed back onto her futon, panting before another contraction ripped a guttural cry from her throat.

"I beg ye, push, child!" Kaede began to panic when her hands came back bloody from checking the crown. "For the babe!"

"Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin ignored her human guardian, instead opting to keep calling for her Lord. It'd been too long since they'd last seen each other. Ever since she'd made her choice to stay in a human village, he'd come by less and less, despite her pleas for more frequent visits. When she'd first announced her decision to stay, she'd done it for him. Having lived in the Western castle for some time, she was aware of the division of species and prejudice against those who ignored such social boundaries. Rin knew she couldn't jeopardize the stability of his lands and lordship. As a child she hadn't understood that, but as she grew, she became painfully aware of the burden she was on him. So she stayed, but now she missed him dearly. She'd deny it aloud, for his sake, but he was her father. Species and class be damned, she loved him. "Lord Sesshomaru!" Rin called again, her vision spotting around the edges. "Please." She sobbed, releasing her hold on consciousness.

"Rin, no!" Kaede called to her ward, fearing the worst. She was familiar with this scenario. Knowing where the odds lay, she took action. Grabbing a clean blade, she cut from below Rin's naval down to just above her pubic bone and began an emergency cesarean operation.

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"I wonder how long we'll be in the caves this time," A village woman, in her mid-forties, spoke to a younger woman. "Last time this happened, Inuyasha had the bandits taken care of by nightfall." The two were in the march to the caves where the villagers had stored extra supplies for such occasions. Though rarely used, the caves were a great hide away from bandit raids and herds of lesser demon that seemed to be blind to the power that Inuyasha radiated across Edo and his forest.

"I heard that it's demon this time," The younger woman added, carrying an infant in her arms. "Kagome didn't look too relaxed either." The younger woman bounced her baby, "I'm worried this time."

"Mama will take care of it," Eiji had been following behind the two the entire time, listening to their worries. "And Papa is coming home tonight." He smiled, having such faith in his father's abilities and strength.

"Of course, dear," the elder woman smiled down at the offspring of the town heroes. While small at birth, he'd certainly grown to fit his peers. "Your parents are very strong. We should have faith in them."

"After all, they did defeat Naraku," The younger woman hugged her baby tighter, "And your uncle is coming to see Rin, so this should be over soon." The two woman sighed, swooning at the thought of the graceful demon lord, "Nothing could ever defeat Lord Sesshomaru."

"Uncle's strong," Eiji nodded, proud of his family's strength. "And so is Papa, Mama, and Shippou." Tucking his arms into his sleeves, he added, "So is Eiji." The two woman laughed happily at Eiji's claim, not in mocking, but in adoration. Edo and it's people had come to love and accept the demons that came and went on their travels. Some had even made Edo their destination, permanently residing in the human village. More often than not, half-demons found their way to the village to meet the famous Inuyasha and his Shikon priestess bride.

The whole experience every time was baffling for the demonic visitors, but what softened their hearts to the reality of acceptance was seeing Eiji, the offspring of a half-breed and a priestess. Their hopes, of course, were torn when the tour of Edo ended with the Goshinboku, where the couple had to explain the challenges they faced in procreating. Each little headstone, unnamed, mocked the half-demons' hopes. Yet, as soon as Inuyasha took his leave to catch a dinner for their guests, Kagome would confess her belief in the moon's doing. She gave them hope for love; a family, and for that, they were grateful.

Eiji continued along the path, growing bored quickly. The majority of the village women and children were confident in a quick stay at the caves and expected to be back in Edo by midnight. Most mothers were chatting about things they needed to do to prepare for the next day and children sang as they followed their older siblings and mothers. Seeing a patch of flowers just off the side of the dirt path, Eiji didn't think twice about leaving the group to pluck a few. He'd catch up with his nose.

Flower crowns layered over his ears and resembling more of a hat, Eiji figured he had enough to share with the other children in the group. Making his way from the tree tops, he was surprised to smell copper and salt. Taking another leap, he landed in a tall branch just close enough to make out the form of a woman collapsing, a sword unsheathing from her back. Eiji had seen plenty of death before, with the illness that took the villagers in winter and with the demons that challenged his father, practically throwing themselves onto his claws, but this ruthless murder was so foreign to him. Knowing what his mother would want, Eiji ran in the other directions, leaping from trees and staying high to remain undetected. His flower crowns snagged on branches as he went, leaving behind a flowery trail in the treetops.

It didn't take long for demons to track his scent, but with the amount of humans scattering about to escape the inevitable, Eiji lost them. He moved quickly, pushing himself to go faster until he reached his designated hiding spot: The Goshinboku. The tree held power within it's bark and now the life of his lost siblings. The tree, the traveling demons often confessed, gave off an eerie feeling, a combination of purity and loss. Never knowing the feel of purification, Eiji reveled in the scent that brought him comfort. He could scent his mother's purity and cleanliness and his father's woodsy smell in the scar of the trunk. He believed the unfamiliar scents at the base of the tree were his older siblings, but his mother had told him they weren't there anymore, but in the tallest branches at the top of the tree. Because of this, he felt safest there with the essence of their souls. So he climbed as high as he could, keeping to the center to avoid being spotted by any flying demon that might make their way this far across Edo.

* * *

Kagome had been fighting for almost two hours now. The sun was just beginning to dip past the horizon, creating a blood-orange glow across the village. The shadows grew long and every brush of wind that blew trees back and forth had Kagome twisting round and round, searching for the demons just out of reach. She was panting and sweating profusely, exhausted from having taken down countless lesser demon.

Glancing up, she watched the last of her archers fall, a flying snake demon tearing through his chest and emerging from the back with the heart of it's victim in it's mouth. She cringed, and spun away to face the next oncoming demon. This one, much like the others, seemed to be a hybrid of human-like underworld roamers. Their skin was scorched and bloody, as if this were their natural state. The scent of burnt flesh and spilled blood was strong enough for even her human nose to scent. The hot summer air baked the sitting bodies, only adding to the rancid smell of decay.

She swung with a fallen comrade's sword in hand, often dodging and rolling away before landing a lucky shot across a calf, slicing tendons, or through a spleen. This one she stabbed through his mouth to the back of his head when he cornered her against a hut. She gave a warrior's cry, kicking away yet another corpse. Blood smeared across Kagome's face, but she ignored the addition to her unintentional war paint. Every inch of her exposed flesh was dirtied, her normally creamy skin, spotted lightly with freckles, was almost black with earth and smeared with blood, pieces of flesh sticking to her clothes and hair. Kagome forced herself to move onward, keeping her guard in front of Rin's hunt. The cries coming from inside alerted her that at least Rin was still alive.

* * *

Sesshomaru had been informed of Rin's upcoming due date a week beforehand, giving the Lord plenty of time to make arrangements for the arrival of gifts, and of course, to schedule his own visit. He'd planned on leaving the Western castle much earlier, but Jaken had delayed his departure, begging to accompany his Lord to see the new addition. Once freed from his ward's begging, Sesshomaru became aware of just how late he would be when he came across multiple demon vigilantes, seeking his head on a platter. This annoyed him greatly, but with Rin's due date a few days away still he figured he might as well get his fill of bloodshed before having to face his half brother and far too friendly, too _human_ nephew. Not that he minded the boy much. He remained respectful and never touched his person, so for that the child was more tolerable than his foolish father.

Getting closer to the village, the day began to fade and turn to night. The sky was at it's most vibrant, glowing red and orange, pink highlighting the outlines of clouds here and there. Sesshomaru paused momentarily to realize exactly how much time he'd wasted. He should have arrived hours ago. He knew how Rin missed him. Even a few hours less together broke her heart, but he could never bring himself to stay longer than necessary. She made her decision, for his sake, so in turn he would slowly fade into her memory, giving her only the happy times to reminisce about, and not the confrontation of a goodbye he was sure would not only hurt her, but him too.

His remembered pains of what was to come urged him to end these pointless battles quickly. He slayed them all easily, slashing through their bodies with his poison whip as he sailed past the hordes of demons, all charging right to their deaths. Believing there had only been a couple dozen, most of which were divided and sprawled about his path, Sesshomaru was confused to see the crowd grow, more and more demon coming his way. He slashed through them all just as easily as he had the first time, but he took notice of his slowed pace with the oncoming numbers. This did not please him. Rin was waiting.

* * *

When Inuyasha had left that morning for an extermination a few towns over, he was expecting some heinous creature attacking farm animals or devouring children in the night. What he'd come to was something larger than he expected. The entire town was actually reanimated corpses, pretending the town was under attack, and had been for a while. Inuyasha could smell the stench of their rotting, bloated bodies, but there was magic at play in this neighboring village. Through his eyes, all he saw were village folk going about their days, seeming on edge, always looking over their shoulders for pending doom. Much like the village of flowers he and the group had once come to, the entire place was a mirage. Inuyasha had difficulties escaping, and once he did, they were after him. He spent most of that daylight running and slaying whatever got close enough to attack. By the afternoon, Inuyasha had killed the demon working underfoot, but the corpses, still charged with magic, had a purpose.

What left Inuyasha curious was that after all the corpses had been defeated, they seemed to be replaced with lesser demon. Even more curious was the fact that the more he killed them, the more they multiplied. Deciding this required the work of a priestess, he led the demons back to Edo, going around the other villages instead of through, doing his best to keep the herd of demons away from easy prey. He was growing weak, having fought solo from sunrise to sunset, but Inuyasha was determined. His family was probably waiting for him to come to dinner.

* * *

Kagome was the last one. All the village men had fallen. Their devotion and self sacrifice had kept Rin and her baby alive this far, but now it was Kagome's turn. She knew what was at stake here. Armed only with farm tools and broken swords, she stood a few feet from the entrance of her friend's hut, prepared to do her worst to anyone who dared threaten the lives of those who were under the Western lord's protection. She would protect them with everything she had, even if it meant her own death. She panted heavily, holding a sword defensively, and her stance wide. The air was quiet around her, nothing but flames cackling, her own breath, and shuffling from inside the hut. Rin had been silent for some time now, but Kagome wouldn't think on it. She had to protect them. Inuyasha might be late, but Sesshomaru was coming. Regardless of her stripped powers, even an ordinary human could sense Sesshomaru's aura. He was close, she could feel it.

Kagome felt the gust of air that signaled movement behind her, much too fast to be human, and turned to face her foe. Swinging without seeing, Kagome hit nothing. She was tiring out quickly without the aid of her purification powers. This battle would have gone smoothly with her powers, even without Inuyasha or Sesshomaru to help. She longed for her bow and arrows and the rush of reiki in her veins. She'd make do, though. Hell, she'd made it this far.

Realizing it was a simple trick, that of a school boy who tapped a person's shoulder furthest from them, she cursed. How could she fall for it? How stupid could she be? Chiding herself, Kagome turned again, only that was exactly what her attacker wanted. He appeared behind her as she spun to face away from the hut, cloaked in black and face turned down, he impaled her abdomen with his bare hands, tangling his long, clawed fingers in her guts, and yanked through her back, spilling her inside onto the ground between them. Kagome gasped, feeling the slush of her intestines shift and pull her insides out. The sheer pain of ripped flesh was enough to blind her, forcing her eyes to roll back into her head. Her only thought being that she failed, Kagome collapsed. Without a second glance, her assailant fled.

The earth was wet beneath Kagome, the warmth of her own shredded body fading quickly, and she shivered. Her unseen creamy skin paled, her lips turned blue, and her half lidded, stormy blue eyes dulled. Kagome had given it her all. She always knew that being a priestess meant an honorable demise, but this didn't feel honorable. There was something more to this common village raid, something bigger, and it kept Kagome's soul from the possibility of rest.


	3. Chapter 3

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, I'm not proof reading for this chapter. Right now sitting up is killing my back. As a healthcare worker, the bottom bitch caregiver, titled CNA, I feel dead. And just so you all know, just in case you visit your grandparents in nursing homes, assisted living facilities, hospitals, or physical rehabs, us CNAs kill ourselves over your parents/grandparents/other relatives staying in these facilities. I have missed three straight Christmases with my family. I take care of your morbidly obese southern style hee-hah grandma and Santa looking grandpa. Do you have any idea what rolling a nearly four hundred pound person feels like? Oh, and BY YOURSELF, because a majority of these facilities are understaffed and most aides won't help because they got their own shit to do? I'll tell you what it looks like. My co-worker the other day said I was walking like a week overdue pregnant woman. I had ice packs on my lower back, I waddled, and I ached. Everywhere. We do the most we can. So please, if you're part of that family who comes to visit and straight up bitches and threatens to report a Certified Nurse Assistant (CNA)/Caregiver/Orderly/Patient Care Tech (PCT)/Safety Companion (SCI/SCII) or even the nurses, I swear to God, have some compassion for us and what we sacrifice so your loved ones, no matter how demented or disabled, are cared for. We're not super heroes. Not everyone is going to be cared for right this second, and for that, I'm sorry, but most days I have anywhere from fourteen to thirty-eight patients to take care of. So be kind, and be patient, and if you see any visiting family of any patient go apeshit over something silly, please step in. Families of elderly patients do best when they stick together and share their sorrows over their parents' failing abilities.

So all in all, just so everyone is clear, this is my only day off in the past two weeks, and the next three weeks. I spent the whole day sleeping, and when I woke up I was still in such awful pain that I cried the entire evening. I'd like to tell my patients' families that whenever they bitch at me, but apparently that only makes them angrier. Mother needs ice in her water more than the old man in plain view who just shit so much its leaking out his pants and onto the floor needs a new pair of underpants. See what I'm working with here? It's not just the physical pain, it's a mental strain to not retaliate against families like this and residents who purposely hurt me. I have scars on my arms from their fingernails. I have been smacked in the face while their hands are full of shit. They have kicked me, tripped me, and punched me. They're senile, I know, but I'm human too. If that happened to you, what would you do?

Rant over, though I'm sure you've all just scrolled past all this. And just to be clear, never have I ever hurt any of my residents. I have crazy self control, people. And a great sense of humor.

Don't forget to follow and review!

XOXO

Archersploosh

* * *

 _ **TOWARD TOMORROW**_

Sesshomaru broke through the tree line of Inuyasha's forest and entered Edo. His lightening pace had slowed down to a human jog, which quickly turned into a slow dragging of his feet. The massacre he'd found left him hopeless. There were no sounds, no live demons, humans, no one. Corpses littered the streets, men and demon alike. The sight he saw didn't phase him, though. The silence, however, did. Never had Sesshomaru felt his heart drop into his stomach, stilling for an entire moment. He'd just been thinking of their inevitable goodbye, but this...

He wouldn't let himself think beyond that. Rin, _his_ Rin, had to be alive. Forcing his feet to move faster, he breezed past the freshly murdered villagers without a second glance. Not needing to scent his way to find Rin's home, he followed his usual path. The further in he went, the bloodier the ground. By the time her hut was in sight, his boots were sticky with mud formed by blood and earth. Despite the increase in gore, Sesshomaru was pleased. This meant the priestesses had protected what was his. Or tried to, he reminded himself. If she were...

No. He had to stop thinking like that, he chided. Approaching what looked to be the last battle, Sesshomaru familiarized himself with the shredded form of his half-brother's wife. While he didn't recognize her by sight, he knew her scent of purity. Normally she smelled clean as well, but her death had not been a soft easing of an elder going in their sleep. No, Kagome had fought for her life and the lives of others. Sesshomaru did not scrunch his nose in disgust, and instead knelt down to close her eyes. Regardless of having been a nuisance to this Sesshomaru, he owed her much. He was now indebted to her. Lifting his eyes to the sky, he asked the Gods for her peace in the afterlife.

Tenseiga pulsed.

"What?" Sesshomaru's eyes widening was the only telltale sign of his surprise. It appeared to be that Kagome was worth saving. Tenseiga pulsed again, this time stronger as Sesshomaru placed his hand on the hilt, feeling for the power to see the minion s of the underworld. They were there alright, and he still had time to revive her, but he knew better. This was honorable. And if he revived her, who was to say that she wouldn't die in a few years anyways, leaving his half-brother alone once more? She really only had another thirty, maybe fifty years left of her feeble, human life.

Removing his hand from the hilt of his heavenly sword, Sesshomaru had made his decision. Her death was best now. Not only for her, having been given the highest of honors a priestess could ever have, but for Inuyasha. While he held no love for his father's bastard, Sesshomaru had come to terms with his half-brother's existence. Inuyasha's wife's death was better now. Nodding to himself, he turned towards the hut. Inuyasha would never have to watch Kagome age before his eyes. This was the gift he gave his brother, knowing the burden of loving a human all too well.

Entering the hut, Sesshomaru's fears were brought to life. The walls were stained with blood, the screen concealing Rin was also splattered. Candles behind the screen flickered eerily, casting a yellow glow in the dim hut. Coming up the first step, Sesshomaru remembered the first time he came to visit after Rin had been married. She made him take his boots off and leave them by the door before sitting by the cooking pot and having tea with her. Her easy smile had won him over and he'd respected her wishes. Now, he stepped onto the hard wood floors leaving muddy prints in his wake.

Coming around the screen, he saw the elder priestess, Lady Kaede, sliced through from left shoulder to right hip. She'd most likely bled to death very quickly, he surmised, and asked the Gods for her soul's peace as well. Demons and holy servants of the Gods had come together to raise an orphaned child, one who'd died twice already. Sesshomaru could only hope that this beautiful young woman he'd taken in as a small child and raised, protected, and sent off for her own good, could survive once more. Before she was eight years old, she'd experienced death _twice._ He remembered his mother's words as if she'd spoken them moments ago. There would be no more reviving her from the dead.

Moving his eyes to scan her covered form, Sesshomaru already knew the answer he'd been seeking. He'd known the second he entered the town, but he wanted to see. He had to see for himself. And now all he had to do was lift the sheets from her face and see the emptiness in her eyes to verify, really verify her lost soul, but he couldn't. Seeing only a free hand from the side, he bent down and grasped her cold hand in his, allowing himself a moment with his lost child.

Sesshomaru regretted never having called her that; his child. She was his daughter. With both hands he lifted her tiny fist to his mouth and left a kiss to her smooth knuckles. How many times had she called for him? How scared had she been with death looming in the air while she birthed her very first child? That tore at him. She wasn't due for another week, but he knew these things were never quite as smooth or on time as they should be, and yet, he'd been selfish. Those lesser demons, sent to distract him, and he had only just fallen for the bait, using their flesh as a game to delay the pains he felt when he saw Rin. Now? He cringed, holding her hand tightly to his mouth. Now she was gone. He'd wasted his time with her. He could have saved her.

"I'm sorry," He spoke to her, knowing it fell on deaf ears, "I should have been here."

His voice startled the baby on Rin's other side, who began to cry. Sesshomaru rested Rin's hand down and reached for the bundle he hadn't cared to notice before. Picking the newborn up, he cradled the baby in his arms, only giving a cursory glimpse before seeing the shadow of another person behind him. So caught up in his own grief, Sesshomaru hadn't noticed the presence of another demon in the hut, but that didn't mean he wasn't fast enough to evade the attack. He ducked the swing of a blade and tripped his assailant, using a single slash of his poison whip to behead the cloaked demon. Sesshomaru didn't care to identify whoever it was. He needed to get Rin's baby to safety.

Exiting the hut, Sesshomaru held the crying infant close. Looking down at the priestess once more, Sesshomaru could smell the fainting of her purity. Her soul was almost gone. While he knew he was doing the right thing, guilt stilled Sesshomaru and kept him from leaving. Looking down at the crying child in his arms, Sesshomaru saw the glow of a jewel across her chest, and with that came the revived scent of purity the infant now emitted. Rin had bore a priestess.

"Kagome." Sesshomaru addressed the dead priestess, curious of her spirit's doing. Was this a sign? He didn't know. As a demon, he didn't know much of holy powers.

"Kagome," The echo of her name came this time from her husband. Sesshomaru braved himself for a possible battle, turning to his half-brother. "No," Inuyasha looked as if he'd fought a war. Kneeling down to his broken bride, he brought her forehead to his and sobbed. "No," He pleaded once more, sitting back on his heels. "Sesshomaru," Inuyasha kept his face turned down, hiding his tears, though he knew the scent was obvious, "Can you bring her back?"

"Tensaiga wished it," Sesshomaru did not lie.

"Will you?" Inuyasha scrubbed his eyes clear, looking up to his brother with hope.

"No," Sesshomaru spoke over the wailing of the baby. "It is her time."

"It doesn't have to be," Inuyasha begged, knowing that even if Sesshomaru had been generous enough, he was right. Priestesses were meant to die honorably, protecting their villages with their lives. She had fulfilled her purpose. Kagome would not wish to be revived.

Sensing their confrontation was over, Sesshomaru took to the skies, making a speedy escape to the Western castle in preparations for their newest addition. This one, he would protect with his life. He owed his daughter that much.

Inuyasha wept openly after his brother's departure, opting to lie down next to his deceased wife rather than try to pull her split form into his lap. He brushed her mangled hair from her blackened face and brushed his lips to her forehead. Sobs ripped from his throat, letting go of his pride. Kagome had suffered so much. She'd lost her father when she was young, watched her true love chase another, was thrust into the title of the Shikon priestess which forced her to sacrifice a life in the modern wold, and had lost nearly a dozen children. Now, having been granted a single child, her own life had been stripped from the earth.

"I'll take care of him," Inuyasha made his last promise to his wife, "I will protect him." With one last nuzzle to her throat, soaking in the scent of her faded purity, he swore he would never forget the sacrifices she'd made for him, building a home with him, and bearing him a son.

Kagome had poked holes into his tortured logic long ago. She'd nurtured him, reminding him much of his mother who'd fought so valiantly with villagers for equality. She'd loved him, even when he didn't want her to love him, even when he didn't love himself. And this is the life he'd given her. Never had Inuyasha felt so guilty before. She could have been safe, five hundred years from now, a college graduate, married, and rearing multiple human children. He almost laughed, hearing Kagome's annoyance in his mind. She would have sat him for thinking that a long time ago, but as a wife and mother, she would have cried. Kagome loved the life she chose, he knew, because they were together. Yeah, together alright, Inuyasha thought sarcastically. In the fading light of the sunset, evening turning to dusk, Inuyasha held his love close to him a few more moments, ignoring the scent of death around them, and discomfort of cold blood soaking him. He would not leave her tonight, but come morning Inuyasha had another life to avenge. He would destroy whoever stole his happiness; his light.


	4. Chapter 4

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey, everyone! Sorry for the major delay. I ended up going to the doctor's for the pain in my back and guess who not only pulled a muscle, but somehow got a kidney infection? Yeah, me, I did. Not only that, I got a ridiculous cold at the tail end of my kidney infection going away, a very bloody visit from Aunt Flo, and by the time I was better, my best friend's birthday had occurred. So that resulted in a self induced 24 hour stomach bug, if you catch my drift. After that, it was right back to working 80 hours a week. As I type, I am counting down the lost sleep over this chapter. Seriously, for the past three days I haven't had more than four hours of sleep and now here I am, knowing I'm only going to sleep about 3 hours before working a double. I have that anonymous review to thank for this chapter.

As a warning, there is a lemon in this chapter, way more detailed than the first. Beware.

Also, I made this one super long to make up for all the lost updates. Thanks for being so patient, and I love you all for reading this. Please read, follow, and review! Oh, and wish me luck on my date! I met a guy at this birthday party. Fingers crossed we hit it off, because that means I'll work less. Meaning I'll write more. Duh.

XOXO

Archersploosh

* * *

 _ **TOWARD TOMORROW**_

Eiji ran through the forest, leaping from tree branches. His destination was unknown, but as he sped onwards, it was obvious something was hot on his heels. The air in his lungs burned, his breath coming short as he forced his feet to push off once more. Landing roughly, the small boy nearly lost his footing and fell to the demons below.

It had started as an unfortunate string of bad luck shortly after Eiji moved East. First, he'd been picked up in his sleep, the oncoming scavengers mistaking him for a corpse. That had ended with his first life threatening battle. Knowing what was on the line, Eiji imitated the things he'd learned just from watching his father train Shippou. The remembered movements had been foreign to him, almost fighting in a daze, but Eiji knew better. He was still in shock from the day before.

The fight with the scavengers had been hard on his small body, but Eiji moved onwards, determined to reach the slayer village. When he scented a berry bush along the path, Eiji was happy to follow, but only managed a few handfuls before a couple of wild boars entered the clearing. Though they lacked demonic qualities, each one was still four times larger than him, so Eiji ran. Having taken to the trees, he hadn't actually seen the boars for some time. His lungs burned for a break, urging him to slow to a stop.

How many days had it been? Eiji thought, gasping for air. How much longer would he have to go without his mother and father? Where was Shippou and Uncle? Rin and Grandma Kaede? Tears blurred his vision, wetting lashes as they seeped from his eyes. Feeling more than hearing the scratching of an animal against the tree's base below, the boy peered over.

A wolf. No boars.

Huh.

Eiji climbed down slowly, getting in closer to get a good look at it. On the last branch before the ground, a good six feet up, he noticed the animal's posture and paid close attention to the yips and growls the wolf emitted. Instead of looking threatening and baring it's sharp teeth, the wolf waited patiently on the ground, huffing in impatience and whined, nose pointing to him and then back to the ground.

A brown wolf, Eiji noted, knowing the colors represented tribes. Brown was safe. Brown meant Kouga, and Eiji had always liked Kouga, despite his father's open distaste for his company. No matter, Eiji thought, Mother liked Kouga, and Kouga was mated to Ayame, and she was always so kind and soft. He wondered vaguely when he'd see them next. Certainly this wolf wasn't Lord Kouga, himself. A demon of his stature would be much larger in demonic form.

"Did Kouga send you?" Eiji asked, his voice warbled, rusty from disuse. The wolf didn't even nod. "What about Lady Ayame?" Again, no response. Of course, if they'd known what happened to the villagers, they would have come themselves to save everyone. Or maybe they were helping his parents! Yes, of course. That's why they'd send a wolf. Or...

It could be a trap. This wolf could be tricking him into coming down to murder him. There was blood on his maw. Although, that could explain the lack of boars now. Eiji was confused. Plopping himself down onto the branch, he straddled it, leaning against the core.

"I'm staying here." Eiji proclaimed, sticking his tongue out at the wolf. Mother would say that was rude, but Father would be happy he was wary of the wolf. He always said that enemies were everywhere, hiding under smiles. Though it was only just hitting around time for the evening meal, Eiji was exhausted. He'd turn in for the night and start anew on his journey to the East in the morning. Not having the energy to stay up and go over the events of the past thirty or so hours, Eiji fell into a deep sleep.

When morning came, Eiji awoke to his rumbling stomach. The last time he'd eaten was right before those boars chased him, and even then he'd only nabbed a few berries. His stomach whined, reminding him of his aching hunger. Checking the area below the tree, he was surprised to see no wolf. At least it was gone, though. Eiji sighed, readying himself for another long day towards the East. Shaking off the hunger, he hopped to another tree's branches, moving slowly. He was part demon. He could go another day without food and water. Or so he hoped. Eiji had never been exposed to these complications, but he was determined. He'd make it to the demon slayer village. He had to.

Relying mostly on his nose to compass his directions, Eiji stayed in the trees for the most of the day's journey. He'd stopped twice so far, once for more berries and water, and once to relieve himself. After that, though, he was back to the trees. The wolf had returned around noon, and followed his path at a slow pace, keeping a good distance behind.

On the third day, Eiji had come to trust the wolf. Surely it wouldn't follow so diligently unless it was a friend. He showed his acceptance by leaping to the ground below and walking beside the wolf. Watching carefully from the corner of his eye, he noticed the wolf pick up pace then, angling himself inward to keep close. So the solo journey was no more. The two continued on until night fall when Eiji went back to the trees to sleep high, where he deemed it safest. Eiji took notice of the wolf's departure, assuming he'd be back by noon tomorrow, like he'd done the earlier, but was curious to smell the wolf returning within an hour. And he brought deer! Eiji's mouth watered. It'd been so long since he'd last had a real meal, with real meat.

Leaping down to greet the wolf back to their makeshift campsite, the boy landed softly in a crouch, and stood, folding his arms into his sleeves. Waiting. Hoping.

His stomach growled painfully.

The wolf dragged the dead deer into the clearing, ripping into it's side and picking pieces out to lay aside. Eiji watched, waiting patiently for the wolf to acknowledge him. He'd visited Kouga's pack enough times to know that the alpha eats first, and then the young. If he was even invited to partake. His stomach gurgled once more at the thought. Hopefully the wolf wouldn't be eating all of the deer. He was so hungry.

To his relief, he was invited to the pile of flesh set aside from the carcass. Although Eiji didn't usually eat his meat raw, he didn't hesitate in digging in. The metallic taste of blood filled his senses as he chewed, relishing in the feeling. Though mostly human, he still partook in typical behavior of a four year old demon. Aside from enjoying raw meat, Eiji also acted mostly on instinct, always fighting an inner first-thought. When the monk and slayer were near, he always thought to run, but knew better. His parents' friends were practically family. They were safe, and right now, they were home.

Bellies filled, the two went their separate ways and off to sleep.

In the morning, Eiji continued on without the wolf, expecting it to return later like it had the day before. Humming a future tune, he thought about the village's status and where his parents might be. His father had been expected home that evening and his mother had told him to stay put in the caves until he was retrieved by either of his parents, but things went askew. The villagers, the children he'd grown up with and spent his days with, had been murdered. The women who'd raised those children, who fawned over his ears and giggled at his displays of assertiveness, acting much like his brash father, were slain. Eiji already missed his friends. There was Mai and Mizuki, the twin girls in priestess training who often played tag with him. Katsuo was a bit older, but shy, and often hung around the little kids, playing house when he wasn't helping in the rice fields. And a girl he found pretty, Hina, who followed Sango and her twins around whenever they came to visit. She wanted to be a slayer just like them, and Sango had promised the little girl to come back when she was of age to train. Hina had been so happy that day. Eiji remembered her tears, her smile, and her laugh.

What if everyone in the village was dead? Eiji recalled last winter. His parents spent many hours digging graves for the villagers who died of the cold. Maybe they had been digging graves all this time? Then what of Rin and the new baby? Tears formed in his eyes at the thought. He loved his cousin dearly. Sometimes when his mother went away with his father to help defeat a demon and Grandma Kaede was too busy with the priestesses in training, Rin would watch him. They often made delicious dishes together and spent hours in fields of flowers. She taught him to make flower crowns. There had been bets in Edo of the gender of her baby, too. Eiji was for a girl being born, siding with his mother's guess. Father said girls fussed too much and bet on a boy, he thought, but Mother knew better. She came from the future, where gender predictions could be made far sooner than they could.

Thinking too deeply without paying attention, Eiji took to a path commonly populated by humans venturing for trade. While it had been empty for some time, some wanderers were making their way closer, inspecting the boy at a distance as they approached to pass. Now close enough to tell his spikey hair apart from his dog ears, they began to whisper amongst themselves. Within the group, there were three men, all rather buff and tanned from many days in the sun.

"Disgusting." The man in front said as he passed. The third tripped Eiji. He fell forward, catching himself on his hands and picked himself up, brushing dirt off his hands.

"Stay in the dirt, ya half-breed!" The second man growled, kicking Eiji down none too gently. Eiji was baffled. What was so wrong? What did he do? How had he offended these strangers? Wiping leftover tears away, he brought himself up to his hands and knees, being careful of his ribs.

"I'm sorry?" Eiji sat back on his feet and peered up at the three adults. The gruffest one of the group came forward and punched him across the face. Too stunned to react, he left himself open to be hit.

"Can't you hear with those fucking ears, half-breed?" Eiji couldn't tell who'd spoken. His senses were rattled by the pain he was in. "Stay in the dirt and die." Sitting himself up again, Eiji still didn't understand. What had he done? Why was being a half demon so bad?

Before the one who'd knocked him down the first time could stomp on Eiji's little body, the wolf came through the clearing and bit the human's leg before it could be brought down in a stomp. The man cried out in agony, shaking the wolf with his leg, only helping to tear his skin.

"What the fuck?" The other two called and watched on in confusion. The wolf held on and finally, the men jumped in, aiming their fists at the wolf's head, but the wolf was smarter. The fight was short, but the men were limping away quickly, terrified of the large wolf growling and barking at them.

"Thank you," Eiji had watched the short fight begin and end, frozen by confusion and the pain radiating from his skull. "Are you okay?" The wolf didn't acknowledge the question, but instead took to sniffing the boy's hair and neck, pleased to find minimal damage. He whined and motioned to the horizon. "Alright, let's go."

The two continued on in silence for a few hours. When the afternoon sun began to fade, Eiji started to recognize their surroundings. He'd reach the village of slayers within an hour or two. Taking a break for water at the river he'd often stopped at with his parents when they came this route to visit, he took his time in gulping the water from his cupped hands, relieved of his thirst. Sometimes Eiji and his mother would strip down to their skivvies and run through the river to cool off while his father watched from the boulder in the middle that split the streaming water in two. This is where he first learned to swim. Not many humans could, but his mother had taken lessons in the future and often taught the village children back in Edo, but here, last summer, is where he finally learned to swim. The current helped to strengthen his strokes, and he could finally stay afloat doing various strokes instead of a doggy paddle, which his mother found hilarious. She would say that it's "Pun-y." Eiji laughed at it, too.

Taking to the road again, the wolf stayed put at the stream. Eiji turned, and waited for the wolf. Maybe he decided he did want water? But the wolf stayed put and nosed the horizon again. Eiji was confused. He wanted to continue onward, but why wasn't he coming with? The wolf barked loud and gestured to the path again. Oh. Eiji hadn't really thought about what happened after he reached the village. This was goodbye. Before Eiji could come forward to give his protector and companion a hug goodbye, he'd taken off to the forest.

"Thank you." Regardless, he voiced his appreciation. The wolf would hear it.

* * *

The stars were just coming out and the sun was almost gone from the sky, but Eiji did make it into the village before dark. Breathing hard from running for so long after the wolf left, Eiji slowed himself at the gated entrance. He knew from experience that there were men staked high in the towers by the doors.

"Hello?" He called out, still heaving in gulps of air.

"State your business." An armed slayer in the tower on the left called back.

"I'm Eiji of Edo," Eiji yelled, "And I am here to see Sango and Miroku." The doors were opened before he could finish his sentence. They remembered him. Sniffing for their scents, he recognized Kohaku's amongst theirs. Ah. Ken. He was a good friend of Kohaku's. "Thank you, Ken." Coming through the tall gate, it closed behind him and Ken climbed down from his perch.

"Eiji, where are your parents?" Ken, a young man in his twenties, asked. His slayer uniform was the customary black, with dark green armor where Sango's was pink and Kohaku's was blue. The last time his family had come to visit, Eiji spent more time with Kohaku, Miroku, and Ken. The three were good friends and often made Inuyasha the butt of their jokes to pester the half demon. Eiji was drawn to that, not often seeing his father be boyish and silly. Shippou and Kagome often spent more time with Sango, the twins, and the youngest boy. Eiji liked his human cousins well enough, but Kohaku was something of a mystery to him. He liked his Uncle. Kohaku was honest when others weren't.

"I don't know," Eiji, worn from the three day trip, exhausted by the last burst of speed he'd used to arrive early enough in the night, and just so relieved to have finally arrived, that it all caught up with him. "I don't know," Eiji began to weep, scrubbing at his face, "I don't know."

"Come with me," Ken picked the crying boy up easily and rushed to the head house of the village. Approaching the manor and seeing Sango out front with one of her daughters, he called to her, "Lady Sango!"

"Ken, who is that?" Sango came down and met the young man half way, "Oh, Eiji?" She was surprised. "Eiji, what's going on? Where are Kagome and Inuyasha?" She took Eiji from Ken's arms and waved him away to go back to his tower duties.

"I don't know!" Eiji held onto Sango tight, crying to his heart's content. "I don't know," He sobbed while Sango rocked him gently, "Mama said to go wait in the caves," Eiji sniffed his aunt's neck, relieved by her familiar smell of light sweat and soap.

"Mother?" Hatsu, Sango's eldest daughter of the twins, came down the steps and saw her cousin bundled in her mother's arms. In her dark blue kimono without the sun to shine onto her hair, she was a spitting image of her father.

"Hatsu," Sango laid a hand on her teenage daughter's shoulder. Concern made her voice crack, "Go get your father. And watch your brother for me, please."

"Yes, Mother," Hatsu bowed obediently and ran into the house.

"Oh, Eiji, what happened?" Sango continued to hold him tightly, sitting herself on the steps.

"Mama was called upon," Eiji brought himself to look his aunt in the eyes, "Rin's birth was trouble. Demons were coming, and Father was away."

"Oh, no," Sango grew impatient, "Miroku!" She yelled for her husband.

"Sango!" Miroku burst through and squatted down in front of the pair. "Eiji?"

"Father was late," Eiji continued, sniffling, "And I went to the caves with the villagers, but," He began to cry again. Miroku gulped his fear down. They would be okay. Inuyasha was strong, and Kagome fierce. Nothing could have happened. Edo was so safe. "But I got off track and when I came back they were dead!"

"Eiji, what happened?" Miroku asked, brushing his beloved nephew's hair out of his face. "Where are your parents?"

"I don't know," Eiji cried again, hugging Sango, "I don't know, I just came here. I don't know," He sobbed over and over again, "I don't know."

"Shh," Sango held Eiji close, rubbing his back soothingly as she rocked him. Soon he was off to sleep, having cried himself out. "Miroku, what are we going to do?"

"We wait," Her husband wrapped an arm around them. Sango's eyes watered at the thought of her friends being dead. "Eiji did the right thing coming here. They'll know where to find him."

"Okay," Sango shed a few of her own tears, mourning for a lost family. If they were really dead, then she and her husband would be left to raise Eiji themselves. She was just glad at the very least their son was alive. Kagome wouldn't let herself rest knowing she couldn't protect her son. "We wait."

* * *

Inside, Hatsu sat in the front room with her twin, Hiina, and their younger brother, Hisao. The three had grown into young teens beautifully. The twins had their mother's hair and eyes, identical in every way, but their personalities were opposite. Hatsu had grown up to be much like her mother, very strong willed and focused on her goals and what was right and just when it came to slaying demons and protecting villages. Though fierce in battle and firm in her decisions, the elder twin was also demure and quiet off the battlefield. When she wasn't training, doing chores, or out on assignments for their neighboring villages, she often spent her time alone, participating in quiet activities with the village children, or assisting others in their duties. Hatsu would never abandon her duties as a slayer, but she did have a passion for spiritual reiki and longed to take up spiritual training with Lady Kagome and Lady Kaede. As eldest, she kept these desires to herself, well aware of her inheritance and the responsibilities that came with the honor of becoming the town headman and top slayer.

The younger twin, Hiina, took after her father. Just shy of turning seventeen, Hiina had already received many marriage proposals from the village boys. She was loud and basked in the attention of men. Having learned that she had some power over the male population, she used that to her advantage. Hiina skipped lessons by flirting with her mentor often, always making up the training in private sessions after the dojo would close for the evening. Her mentor wasn't the only one, though. Hiina was also seeing a sweet rice farmer to have a place to hide when she was due for a shift at the gate towers. There were others, too. Village boys, travelers, other slayers, and yet not one demon they spared would even look her way. She deemed this frustrating. Aside from her inherited libido and lecherous ways, Hiina just liked to have fun. Unlike her twin sister, she didn't have to try very hard to perfect a skill, so she often spent her days with her many suitors, always trying new tricks to lure new men into giving her what she wanted, which varied daily. The traveling monk she'd escorted to their shrine the day before was a challenge. A man, holy in his word, and celibate for the sake of the Gods, was something she found deviously exciting. Within the first hour, she had the young monk on his back in the tall grass, riding him while he warred with himself over his sins and desire.

The third child of the slayer family, only thirteen, was Hisao. To his eldest sister's dismay, Hisao had a knack for spiritual abilities and was being mentored by Hachi at the Mushin temple, where their father had been born and raised. Every now and then the boy would come home for a week or so to spend time with his family before returning back to the temple to continue day and night training. Hisao enjoyed the serenity of spirituality and was rather mature for his age, until his father was around, then he'd loosen up and behave as a normal teenage boy should, blushing at the village girls' praises and playing games with the other kids his age. Hisao especially loved to hear stories of Naraku's curse and his grandfather's travels from Hachi,

"Hatsu," Hisao looked up to his sister where he sat on the floor with his father's old staff rested across his shoulder. His light brown hair glowed honey in the firelight of the lamps. "What's going on?" He could feel the tension thicken in the air and his see his sister's jaw muscle jump, much like it did when she was nervous for a tough battle.

"Eiji is here," Hatsu sat with her siblings, "But Inuyasha and Kagome are not."

"Do you think something happened to them?" Hiina shooed a firecat off her lap, one of which belonged to Kilala's second litter. Sango's happy companion had mated a number of times and bore many kittens before dying in battle with Kohaku and Ken when they went up north for an extermination. If it weren't for her sacrifice, the two wouldn't be alive today. It was heartbreaking for Sango, but she was grateful for the sacrifice Kilala made. Kohaku had died too many times already and knew how devastated her master would be to lose her brother once more, so she took the hit. Kilala had left behind many to replace her, so she was happy to die honorably.

"From what it sounded like, Edo was attacked." Hatsu mused, trying to determine the possibilities. "Didn't Inuyasha turn down help from us," She referred to her fellow slayers, "for that sketchy village's request for extermination?"

"Oh, no," Hiina's hands came to her mouth, covering her gasp of horror, "What if—"

"Inuyasha has faced down death itself," Hisao interrupted before his sister could finish voicing her doubts. "He, along with Kagome, killed Naraku. We must have faith in them."

"Hisao, they're not the warriors they once were!" Hiina, the more emotional and hot tempered of the three, stood and stomped her feet at her siblings' calm demeanor. "Kagome is a wife and mother, not the time traveling Shikon priestess." Huffing, she turned to exit their home and talk to her parents, stopping at the door, "And Inuyasha isn't the vengeful, half-breed prince any longer. He's a husband and father. They're just like our parents." That being said, she ran out to see her possibly orphaned cousin and discuss the dilemma with her parents.

"Hatsu, do you think she's right?" Hisao asked, reevaluating his blinding faith in the duo's strength and abilities. The stories Hachi tells of them are so different from the people he knew them to be. Maybe his sister was right.

"No," The elder sister replied, "I, too, know of their true titles. They're not easily cast aside, despite their trials of becoming parents. The warriors would rise should anything threaten their only child."

* * *

Two days later, after gaining a clearer image of what happened from Eiji, the family was certain Edo had been destroyed. The slayer village worried over it's strongest allies, and the headman's household, containing the champions of Naraku's demise, mourned every outcome. Spirits were brightened, however, by the arrival of a three tailed fox demon.

The large pink balloon popped as it ascended into town, the cloud of smoke dispersing to reveal Shippou, taller, with human feet and clawed toes, handsome as ever with his long flowing red locks, but his usual devious smirk was replaced with a solemn expression. Nearly everyone had gathered to witness the fox's arrival, so spotting his kid brother wasn't hard.

Shippou crouched down to his brother with open arms. Eiji didn't even hesitate. The two held onto each other for a long time while the small boy cried in his big brother's arms, who easily picked up the child and held him close to his chest. When Eiji's cries had calmed, the two made their way through the crowd back up to the headman's house, where they were greeted by Hiina and a village boy talking close on the porch. At the sight of the fox, Hiina immediately jumped back from the boy and shooed him away, mildly embarrassed at being caught flirting with someone, especially in front of Shippou. Hiina found the young demon endlessly entertaining. His tales of adventure and travel, battles, and the tests of knowledge and skill to gain new tails were enthralling. It didn't hurt he was easy on the eyes, either. When she had first realized her beauty made men weak, Hiina took it upon herself to try and woo Shippou whenever he'd come to visit, but for every seductive glance, faked clumsy fall, or well phrased compliment along with a gentle touch, he'd merely smile and call the young teen cute, patting her head and trotting off to chat up her father. He was infuriating and she loved it.

"Shippou!" Hiina, still red faced, greeted the demonic pair. "You came! That's wonderful. I see you've found Eiji, too." Shippou merely stared, his bubbly persona deflated. Bad news was to come. Everyone could feel it. "Right," The twin grew nervous under his stare, "I'll go find Mother and Father."

When the family had gathered once more, Hachi included, they all circled around the fire for the evening. Sango passed tea around, assisted by Hatsu. Shippou hadn't said more than two words to anyone other than Eiji since arriving. The boy sat comfortably in his elder brother's lap, holding his own cup on tea in both hands. The warmth felt cozy as the night air began to sweep through the village with sundown's approach.

"Shippou," Miroku alerted the young man to begin. For a few minutes, they all sat in silence, drinking their tea. Sango was about to begin asking questions, growing impatient over whatever news there was, but the fox began his story.

"The teachers informed me that I needed to return here." Shippou's boyish voice was gruff from distress. He usually held a full laugh and spoke with a light to his voice, but things were different now. Since Naraku's demise and Kagome and Inuyasha's trouble with infertility, life had been pretty normal. The last time Shippou could remember this kind of agony was...

"And?" Hiina leaned forward, too impatient to wait for her crush to gather his thoughts. Shippou peered up at the girl, hugging his brother closer to his chest. Eiji wrapped his little arms around his elder brother's arms holding him and looked up into his face. He could see the tears lining Shippou's eyes, smell the salt in the air, but he never let a single tear fall.

"I came back, and along the way I went through Edo." Shippou gulped back his sorrow, "The village is destroyed. Everyone is dead, and someone already buried all the bodies."

"Who was the survivor?" Hiina's voice broke, her hands hovering over her mouth as if she were going to be sick. Tears slid down her cheeks freely, mourning the loss of many.

"I can't really tell," Shippou admitted, "But I have a feeling it's Father." Eiji's eyes glistened with tears of relief. "However," He went on, this time with more effort to get the words out, "I also think it could be Mother. Her scent was everywhere, but I cannot locate her scent of purity any longer."

"Do you think Mama escaped?" Eiji's hopeful eyes tore at Shippou's heart. He wanted to say yes, he wanted to tell his little brother so badly that their mother had valiantly fought off hoards of demons and managed to escape and was somewhere, on her way here, determined to live to see her boys. But he couldn't give the boy false hope, either. His mother was human, just like all the other villagers. A relentless and vicious warrior, yes, but human. Shippou could smell her blood everywhere. There had been too many times he'd smelled pools of her blood in the past. The many times she'd miscarried, the battles with Naraku, and even the times when Inuyasha lost control and turned into a full demon. He'd smelled her death once before, but she somehow always prevailed, holy powers or not, she was a survivor.

"I think Mother could be anywhere," Shippou brushed the dark strands of hair out of Eiji's face, reminding him so much of Kagome. "But we won't know for sure for a while." With an apologetic half smile, Shippou kissed his brother's brow and scooped him up. "I think it's time for you to go to bed."

"Hatsu, Hisao," Miroku turned to the silent children, who both wiped their own tears away quietly, "Would you two mind readying a room for your cousins?" Without a word, the two rose and left to the back of the house.

"I'll come, too," Hachi rose, following his student down the hall.

"Hiina, Dear?" Sango's puffy, red eyes turned to her youngest daughter. "Would you show Shippou to the hot springs? I'm sure after a long travel, he'd like to soak for a while."

"Yes, Mother," Hiina wiped her eyes clean once more, swallowing a sob, and took Eiji from Shippou, passing the tired boy off to her father. "This way, Shippou," She led him outside in silence.

The path to the hot springs behind the headman's house was short and wrapped just around the back, with a small hut built around it. This was more private for the family, whereas the villagers would often bathe in the hot springs just outside the gates of the village. The moon wasn't at it's highest, but it did appear to be at it's fullest.

Hiina led Shippou quietly, for once not trying to flaunt her curves or fall into his path. She was still wiping tears away at the thought of her Aunt Kagome and Uncle Inuyasha dead, along with the rest of Edo, but there was never a time Hiina wasn't curious.

"Shippou, be honest," She sniffled, "Do you think they're alive?"

"I don't know," Shippou stared onwards, trying his best to not cry. When he was smaller than Eiji, he'd cry all the time, for any reason at all. Sometimes it was because Inuyasha bonked him on the head or he'd dropped his future candy Kagome had so graciously brought back for him. He missed the taste of chocolate and the feel of Kagome's arms around his tiny body, holding him close like a mother would. He'd spent so many years with them, Shippou just got used to calling them Mother and Father. Not that he didn't love his biological parents, he did, but Inuyasha and Kagome raised him. They sent him off to fox schooling for his own good, but whenever he was home, Inuyasha trained him like he would his own son, and Kagome babied him plenty, just as she always had.

He missed their laughter and even their arguing. Eiji had never really experienced his parents truly happy, ignorant of loss, like he had. Shippou saw them grow from kids who hated each other to friends who needed each other, and finally to lovers who'd risk everything for each other. Shippou wanted a love like that; fierce and true. He wanted his parents to be here with him now. He missed them so much...

"Shippou?" Hiina stopped walking once they'd reached the front porch that led inside to the hot springs. She reached for his arm closest to her, her hand resting above his elbow. "It's okay to cry, you know."

That was all it took for him to lose it.

Shippou dropped his chin to his chest, letting his bright red hair cover his face. His shoulders shook gently and his hands came up to his face, wiping away every tear that seeped from his closed eyes. Hiina didn't even think twice. She brought Shippou into her embrace and just held him, rubbing slow circles into his back. Within moments, he'd brought his arms around Hiina and held her tightly, as if she, too, would disappear if he didn't keep her close to prevent it. He didn't weep for long, soothed by Hiina's comfort. When Shippou no longer sobbed, he merely rested his cheek on the top of her head, and sighed.

"Thank you, Hiina," The softness of his voice returned, alerting the young girl she'd helped calm him. "You cried for me when I could not."

"I would have cried anyway," Hiina blushed, realizing exactly how close they were. She felt so loved and needed, but now was not the time to flirt. She moved to release her hold on him and end their comfortable embrace, but Shippou refused to let go completely. Loosening their arms enough to see each others faces, he leaned his forehead on hers, staring deeply into her dark brown eyes. Hiina's blush flared brighter, and her glossy eyes glowed in the moonlight. She was beautiful.

"Kiss me." Shippou asked without a hint of nervousness or embarrassment. Long gone were his days of young romances and awkward adolescence, but he felt something here, and asked for affection without hesitation. Hiina, too familiar with romantic endeavors, obliged. Although, the second their lips touched, a spark she hadn't felt with anyone came to life. She felt fire and electricity within her very being awaken by his touch.

It didn't take long for their slow, innocent kiss to become heated and breathless. Shippou held her face in his hands as he sucked on her bottom lip, inhaling deeply the scent of her arousal in the night air. Hiina opened her mouth to him easily, meeting his tongue halfway. With their mouths busy, there was no room for talk, but with subtle actions, they asked for each other. He groped her chest, played with her obi, and she stuck a cool hand on the peek of his bare chest while the other pulled him closer by his hair. They were desperate in their despair to forget, but also, the two just wanted to feel loved. Hiina had always wanted this. She'd always wanted him, and whether Shippou would admit it or not, he'd been resisting her this entire time, waiting until he deemed her old enough.

Using his demonic speed to his advantage, Shippou undid her kimono quickly, letting her sash drop to the steps of the hot spring. Now open and exposed, while still being hidden by her open robe for those who might be spying, Shippou felt for her hot, naked flesh. His hands went for her ass and hips, gripping her muscle and bones tightly to his form. She moaned in response, and backed them up the stairs and into the hut, all while undoing his clothing.

When they entered, Shippou's hakama were kicked aside and his haori fell open, much like Hiina's kimono. Taking a step back from one another, she slid the robe off and exposed all curves to her lover. Shippou was drunk on the sight before him, his erection pulsing with need. He groaned when she cornered him against the wall and her hand went straight for his manhood. She rubbed the bead of cum around the head of his dick and he sighed with pleasure, letting her do whatever she wanted with him. Kneeling in front of him, Hiina licked the tip back and forth, holding the shaft in one hand. Taking the entire head into her mouth, she sucked, and rubbed her hand along his shaft slowly, and softly, contrasting with her quick, hard sucking.

Shippou was in bliss, holding the back of Hiina's head gently, her long hair knotted in his fingers to keep it out of her face. When he was sure he was either going to collapse or cum right there, he pulled away from her touch and knelt down too, crushing his mouth to her's once more. Leaning her backwards, she followed Shippou's movements and lied on her back, pulling him with her by his haori. Now with their bodies lined up, his dick rested on her pubic bone, coming up to poke her naval, he began to grind against her glistening sex. Hiina relished in the feeling of Shippou's naked body against hers. So lost in their arousal, his moans, and the tingling sensation everywhere he touched, Hiina wasn't able to anticipate his actions like she had with her past lovers. Everything then was calculated and expected, but this—

"Oh, Gods," Hiina panted, her flower tightening around Shippou's fingers. He hadn't teased or been nervous enough to ask like her past flings had, and instead opted for thrusting in with two fingers and immediately started pumping, his fingers curled onto her g-spot, his palm rubbing her clit. Shippou sucked on her neck, silently begging her to cry out, scream, say his name, anything. He wanted to make her sweat and writhe. He needed her to cum. "Yes," She breathed a sigh, widening her legs into a butterfly shape to frame her lover's body. Shippou pumped faster, biting into her shoulder. "Oh, yes!" Hiina could feel herself getting closer, but she didn't want things to end here. Reaching for his throbbing erection, she lined the head of his dick up with her clit and let his beaded cum smear. "I need you," She begged.

"Say it," Shippou groaned at the feel of her hand on him again, and her wet flower drenching his tip. "Hiina," He jerked his penis into a circular motion, preventing her guidance from replacing his hand with his dick, "Say it."

"Please, Shippou!" Hiina kissed him, moaning into his mouth, "I need you inside me!" And with that he removed his fingers and with the help of her aim, slid right into her core, sheathing himself completely. Shippou didn't wait for a sign to go and kept his rhythm, pounding into her at the same speed he'd used his hand on her. "Oh, please!" Hiina cried, kissing Shippou hard. Their tongues slid against one another slowly, muting each others panting and words encouraged by the sensation they both felt building in their sex.

Gripping Hiina's thighs tightly and bending her flexible body to his liking, Shippou maneuvered her knees over his shoulders. Their hands clasped together over her head, they fucked. Not wanting things to be over quickly, the changed pace often, sometimes going slow and sharing words of affection, and when they'd lose themselves to the building sensation they ground into each other, Shippou would slam their bodies together, making sure to fill her with each powerful thrust. When Hiina grew more comfortable with their movements, beginning to familiarize herself with Shippou's body, she guided him onto his back and rode him slowly, providing him a show as she toyed with her clit, bouncing her breasts with each downward stroke.

Shippou couldn't take it much longer. Hiina was driving him insane. Their constant switching for dominance and how easily she took to his body, unashamed, and now flaunting her lithe body as she fucked him senseless. He couldn't take it. Gripping her hips, he forced her down hard and pulled her torso to his. Cupping each cheek in his hands, Shippou lifted her bottom slightly, allowing him enough room to fuck her from underneath her. Her sex squeezed around his, hugging him tightly.

"Hiina," Shippou groaned, unable to hold out any more. She was sucking his neck and moaning so softly. He could feel her flower twitching into orgasm with him. Not bothering to pull out, he came inside her. With one last thrust, he relaxed, holding her to him.

"Wow," Hiina smiled, breathless. They were practically glued together with their sweat. "Shippou, I—"

"You should probably go," Shippou interrupted her. He knew how Sango and Miroku would feel about this. Technically, in his demonic maturing, he was a bit too old for their daughter. That, and he was going to wait another year. He wanted to be like his parents, knowing Inuyasha had to wait until Kagome was eighteen to marry her, but he'd been impatient. He was lonely and in need, and she was too easy of a target. He knew she would sleep with him willingly. Not that he didn't care about her, because he did, but he knew this was all wrong. He didn't deserve her.

Hiina understood. She'd said that to her suitors plenty of times, but never had she known the pain that came with receiving the same string of words. Not bothering to speak cordially, she removed him from her core, feeling his cum begin to seep from herself, and dressed quickly. She didn't even bother to turn and say goodnight before leaving him alone to the springs.

Shippou felt like an ass, but knowing he couldn't encourage this type of relationship, he had to push her away. She was there for him in his time of need, and he was grateful. For now it seemed things would only continue to get more complicated.

* * *

The next morning, the slayer head house operated awkwardly. Sango and Miroku, not having had little ones of their own in a while, doted on Eiji, and made breakfast for the household together, like they had with their own children. The slayer teens went about their morning chores, tending to the farmers' needs, meditating, and taking over a shift to guard the wall and gates. Shippou had decided to spend his morning in the guest room, waiting until Hiina had left before joining his brother and long time comrades.

"Ah, good morning, Shippou!" Hachi greeted the three tail and offered a cup of tea to the young man. "So glad you've risen before my departure. I think it might be time Hisao and I head back to the Mushin temple."

"So soon?" Shippou accepted the cup of tea and cold breakfast Sango gestured for him to eat. The three were now cleaning up the house, doing whatever they could to keep Eiji's mind busy.

"I think it's best." Miroku sat himself with the two, dressed in his slayer uniform. Kohaku and Sango had taught him well after the two married and decided to rebuild the slayer's village. His armor was a dark purple, much like his old priest robes. "Hisao is easily persuaded in his beliefs," Miroku explained, "Especially around Hiina." Shippou visually stiffened at the sound of her name coming from her father's mouth. Guilt washed over him heavily.

"Oh, I see," Shippou turned his attention back to his food and began to pick at it.

"Eh," Hachi appeared nervous, scratching his head, "Shippou, do you mind having a word with me?" Eyeing Miroku while he was focused on Eiji and Sango being silly, he added, "Privately?"

Shippou sighed, figuring Hachi would find out at the very least. As the only other full demon in the village, he wasn't surprised he'd been caught fornicating with the headman's daughter. The two rose and walked into town, people watching as they went and commenting on the growth of the village since being rebuilt only fifteen years before.

"This is about Hiina, isn't it?" Shippou asked boldly as they reached the gate's wall, roaming the paths between fields of rice.

"Uh, well," Hachi began to sweat, "Yes."

"Go on." Shippou urged the raccoon demon to scold him.

"Well," Hachi sighed, "You've put me in an awkward predicament. Miroku is my master, after all. I should tell him of what's occurred between you and his daughter.

"But?" Shippou knew there was more.

"But I don't think I should, so long as this isn't to repeat." Hachi paused when they saw the girl in question actually tending to the fields instead of hiding somewhere to avoid her chores. "You cannot court her without her father's consent, Shippou."

"I know," Shippou sighed, watching her bend over and do her duties. She wore a common kimono today, a basic light blue in color with a dark blue and white striped sash around her waist. "It wasn't something I had planned on."

"What if she gets pregnant? I can smell you clouding her." Hachi's nervousness returned, talking about the boy's seed and the girl's now musky scent. She held the smell of a freshly mated woman. If more demons lived within the walls aside from fire cats, Hiina and Shippou would be in a lot of trouble right now.

Before Shippou could answer, the two demons picked up a very familiar scent. Shippou left to chase the scent as it approached at an alarming speed. Reaching the gate's entrance, Shippou's heart sprung into his throat at the sight of a red clad, silver haired half demon panting and dry heaving at the town's entrance.

"Inuyasha!" Shippou ran to his father, tears stinging his eyes. Before Inuyasha could react, he was embraced by his eldest son, who wept with relief.

"Oi, runt," Inuyasha gasped for breath, wrapping an arm around Shippou more to steady himself than hug the young man. "You're squeezing the air outta me!" Shippou released his father and stepped back, wiping his eyes clear.

"Sorry," Shippou was bashful. It seemed his night with Hiina effected him more than he thought. Tears flowed freely at the sight of his father.

"Where's your brother?" Inuyasha finally caught his breath and took a good look at Shippou. It had been a couple months since they'd last seen each other. The fox exams had passed not too long ago, and Shippou had to stay a few extra weeks for the ceremony dedicated to third tails.

"Papa?" Eiji ran through the forming crowd, Sango hot on his heels.

"Oh, Inuyasha, you're alive!" Sango sighed, the weight of his pending death lifted from her heart. She didn't think she could take much more loss. Seeing Eiji run to his father's arms, she halted in her chase and waved for the reunited family to follow. "Come this way."

"No, wait," Inuyasha had thought long while he buried his neighbors and friends. There were things that needed to be tended to still, and he refused to waste time. "I have to tell you all something."

"What is it?" Sango's knotted hands were loosened by her husband, who made his way to the front of the crowd, and took her hand in his. The villagers that crowded were eager to know what had become of their allies and the Shikon priestess. The couple, aside from the Sango and Miroku, were heroes to this village. Within the crowd, Hiina, Hisao, and Hatsu gathered. Hachi watched from atop a hut for a full bird's eye view of the announcement.

"Edo is destroyed." Inuyasha looked to his friends, spotting out their children, and then looking to his elder son, "And Kagome is dead." He couldn't bring himself to look into his youngest son's identical golden eyes. The child wept immediately, clutching his father's haori tightly. "I'm so sorry," Inuyasha whispered to his sons. Shippou's eyes filled with tears, but he held back. Spotting Hiina in the crowd, she frowned at him, openly weeping for her aunt's lost life. "She died in battle, but she didn't die in vain."

"What?" Shippou grew curious.

"Rin's daughter." Inuyasha spoke, his head turned down, "She survived. Sesshomaru has taken her back to the West with him."

"And Rin?" Shippou nearly lost it. His mother was dead. His best friend couldn't be too. They'd grown up together, played together, and learned together. His cousin was his best friend, and he loved her dearly. He was so excited when she married and even more so when she announced her pregnancy.

"She died in childbirth." Inuyasha's eyes filled with tears, knowing that it could have been the outcome for Kagome the last time she went into labor. His niece was so much like Kagome, so selfless, so caring. And most of all, so full of light.

"Gods," Shippou cursed, refusing to cry. He had to be stronger. Regardless of his decision to hold in his sobs, his shoulders still shook with the effort to contain his sorrows.

"So I need you to go to the West, Shippou," Inuyasha put a hand to his adopted son's head, feeling the softness of his firey hair.

"Why?" Shippou peered up through his bangs.

"I need you to train with Sesshomaru." Inuyasha's eyes hardened with his resolve, "Go protect Rin's daughter. When the times right, I'll need your help to avenge Kagome."

"You think someone raided Edo to murder Kagome?" Sango bit back her distress, speaking through her tears.

"Yes." Inuyasha rubbed Eiji's back, using his son's floral and honey sweet scent to calm him.

"Don't you think Eiji is a bit too young to be traveling all over Japan?" Miroku, though usually a very sensitive man, kept up a strong facade for his family and the towns people.

"That's why I want him to stay with you." Silence filled the clearing.

"Papa?" Eiji's puffy red eyes searched his father's face for verification. The apology in his eyes spoke for itself. Eiji was being left behind. Tears began to fill his eyes once more. "I'll be good! I promise, I won't cry anymore!"

"Eiji," Inuyasha hugged his boy close, sick with himself for doing this. "You have to let go. I have to avenge your mother. Someone out there wanted her dead." He couldn't say the rest. Inuyasha couldn't scare his son that way. He was so worried that whoever took his wife's life, would take his son's too.

"But Papa!" Inuyasha pried Eiji's hands from his clothes and passed his son off to Sango.

"I love you, Eiji. I'll come back for you." Inuyasha turned to Shippou, "Let's head out."

Without another word, the two turned their backs on their friends and family, and left the slayer's village. Hiina's heart broke watching Shippou leave without a glance in her direction, but it hurt worse to see that he hadn't once shed a tear. Sesshomaru would break him, she was certain.

Eiji watched his only family leave, frozen in his aunt's arms. The only thing he could think, the only thing he would remember thinking, was how alone he was now. No mother, no father, and no brother. He might as well have been orphaned.


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Okay, so I know it's been a while, and I'm so very, very sorry, but I am once again working on this story! I have a million and one excuses for why I haven't posted in a long time, and believe me, it's been busy as hell in my life lately. New apartment, new job, new boyfriend, and a crap ton of awful crap, but that's not important right now. What is important is that there is character death in this chapter. Just a little heads up there, ya know. Don't want anyone chewing my head off for not giving anyone a warning, because hey, this is it! ALSO I did not proofread this at all. Like, at all. Just busted it out while I was working the night shift. I actually should be charting for my residents right now and then get to my last rounds for the night, but I absolutely had to post before getting up. So don't hate for the spelling and grammatical errors. Please read, review, and follow!

XOXO

Archersploosh

* * *

 **TOWARD TOMORROW**

"So are you going to tell me about Hiina, or are we going to keep traveling in silence?" Inuyasha asked, racing through the forest that clogged their path onto the next village. Without humans amongst his current pack, the two demons raced on. Inuyasha almost missed the agonizing slow pace. Kagome would have insisted hours ago that everyone rest. It was well past sunset now, the sky dark and lit only with twinkling stars. Shippou didn't respond. "I could smell you all over her, Shippou."

"I'm not stupid," Shippou blurted out.

"Yeah and you ain't smart either." Inuyasha glaced at his adopted son. While the two could pass for brothers in age, their appearances set them apart. Sometimes he wished Shippou had been a snow fox. For humans, they'd assume the two were really related. "She's practically mated, Shippou. She ends up pupped and that's on you."

"I know!" Shippou growled.

"Obviously you don't!" Inuyasha came to halt over a fallen tree. Shippou skidded past him into a clearing, dust clouds clearing along the scrapes left in the earth. Inuyasha stepped down from the tree and stomped up to his son in a way that would have made Kagome proud. "We're on a mission here. You saw Edo. And yet you fucked her anyways!"

"I'm not a kit anymore, you can stop lecturing me like this is my first time around!" Shippou barked back, crossing his arms.

"I don't give a shit if you've fucked a hundred girls, Shippou. I need you here and now to avenge your mother. You can't do that if you're a father yourself." The volume of Inuyasha's voice dropped down to normal, but his tone kept firm. He was well aware of how hypocritical he was sounding. Here he was, abandoning his only son to avenge his lost love.

"What about Eiji?" Shippou stated, uncrossing his arms.

"Whoever killed Kagome," Inuyasha sighed, knowing he had to rely on Shippou, knowing that meant he had to be honest with him and treat him as an equal teammate this time around. "Might come back and kill him, too."

"You think so?" Shippou's defense dropped entirely, his concern too great. "But why? Why a child?"

"I didn't lie about Rin's death, but Kaede..." He swallowed, "She was murdered. Someone was targeting Kagome and Rin, and had she not passed during childbirth, there's no doubt in my mind she would have been killed just like Kaede." Inuyasha nodded to the path ahead, and the two moved onward, at a human's pace. "They were targeting them to get to me and Sesshomaru. When I was burying the bodies, I found this demon in the hut with Rin and Kaede. It reeked of Sesshomaru's poison, and he'd only just gotten there before I did, so I think whoever he was, he was going to kill Rin's baby, too."

"If the baby had died..." Shippou's heart tensed with rage. He'd protect the baby with his life, for Rin. She was his everything; his confidant, cousin, and best friend. He loved her dearly. And her husband, the lonesome, somewhat misunderstood traveling artist had come to life after meeting Rin. The two were perfect for each other and Shippou missed everything about them. Losing them, along with his adoptive mother, and grandmother, and the friends amongst the town would be the hardest thing he'd have to endure, but to lose that precious baby, the product of love and light, art and warmth, would have destroyed him. Such innocence should never be stripped from this earth.

"I know," Inuyasha interrupted his line of thought, "I don't think I could handle losing another baby in this family again."

"I'll protect Rin's baby." Shippou's resolve was set. "I'll go the Western fortress."

"Good." Inuyasha nodded his approval. "I'll be south for a while, so if you find out anything useful, find me." Shippou nodded back, understanding his orders and took off at full speed. He'd have to convince Lord Sesshomaru somehow to agree to train him. He'd have to prove his worth somehow.

 **Six Years Later**

"Father when can we rest?" Eiji followed after his half demon father, huffing up the mountains in the North. For ten years old, Eiji was tall, but his growth spurt only thinned him out further. He looked almost frail, but despite his skinny appearance, he was strong.

"At nightfall," Inuyasha looked down to his son's tired frame, hunched over a spear like an old man to a cane. "Maybe sunset," He added, thinking of his deceased wife for a moment. Kagome asked almost ten times as often as Eiji does now. Inuyasha winced at the memory of Kagome stubbornly stomping her foot into the ground or plopping down onto a boulder or even sitting him into his own grave for denying her rest.

"Okay," Eiji heaved, standing to full height as he awaited orders from his father. Surrounding the two were the corpses of ogres and giants, their bodies giving off steam from the cut of tetsusaiga's wind scar. "So if these guys hadn't led us off track, we'd be...?"

"Still heading South." Inuyasha sheathed his sword, once more grateful his son was part human. The tetsusaiga held a great part of Inuyasha's power, and he would have missed it's strength. He needed Eiji's human blood, the blood of his long dead mother and wife. "Last time I was down there, I could have sworn something smelled off. I was just short of finding him, I just know it."

"Father," Eiji tensed, hating how his mother's death has hung over their lives for so long. Truth be told, Eiji wasn't very close to his father anymore. Inuyasha had taken off that day, so long ago that Eiji only vaguely remembered it, and hadn't returned until just a month ago. This was the most time the two had spent together, and more often than not, their travels were silent and their conversation sounded more like the exchanges of a warrior and comrade than a father and son. "What if we never find her killer? What will you do?"

"Keh," Inuyasha crossed his arms, looking away from his son. Inuyasha loved the boy dearly, but he felt that he took more after Sesshomaru than him or Kagome. He behaved with cold mannerisms and when it came to something challenging, he was hopeless or lacked the fire and passion, the stubborn nature of both his parents, to rise to the occasion. However, that didn't mean he was weak. For ten years old, he was mature, smart, cool, and calculating. His temper wasn't easy to rouse, but when it was, that's where his lineage showed true. Much like Inuyasha, Eiji lashed out at the ones who loved him most. Like his Aunt Sango and Uncle Miroku. The boy spent many nights on tower watch duty just to avoid their disappointing stares. Sango always made him feel guilty with her cold shoulder, but it was Miroku who would always coax an apology out of the boy with a few token phrases, such as "I miss my son. It sure is nice having another male around. I just wish you'd talk to me more..." or "Your mother wouldn't tolerate such behavior. She must be frowning upon us all."

"You act like I'm one to give up." Inuyasha scowled at his son, "How many times have I told you the story of how your mother and I met, how many times I've rescued her? Or how many times she's sacrificed herself for me," He emphasized, "And you?" Eiji flinched at that, the guilt stabbing at him. His anger burned in his belly, but he knew better than to snap at his father a second time. Though they've hardly spent much time together, Inuyasha was as disciplinary as any present father. Eiji did not wish to push his father any further.

"I just think she'd be happier if we moved on." This time in hushed tones, Eiji allowed his own sorrows to lace his words. "She'd want you to be happy."

"She'd also want me to do whatever it takes to ensure your safety." Inuyasha's scrunched face softened, pushing his son's short, black mop of hair out of his eyes. "Come on, we better hurry. The faster we move, the faster we can make camp."

Within the Western Palace, many changes had occurred since the night Edo burned to the ground. Aside from the addition of another human child, a fox had joined the residence. Shippou was forbidden to enter the Western wing, where Sesshomaru and Rin's daughter, Nishiko, resided. The baby had grown into the gentle, sweet girl her mother once was, always laughing and smiling, making daisy chains and tormenting Jaken. At the age of six now, she looked identical to her mother, with the exception of her eyes, which were a soft honey color like her father's.

"Lord Shippou," She addressed the older fox demon she had grown close to. Sitting in the gardens, under a cherry blossom tree, she braided more flowers into her crown. "When do ladies marry?" She was staring intently at the young demoness being escorted around the gardens by a much taller, older demon. Their silver hair shined brightly in the afternoon sun, no doubt dog demons. Shippou, physically the same since he'd left the slayer village with Inuyasha, followed the little girl's gaze. His long red hair flowed over his shoulder despite being tied up high on his head. He smiled at her curiosity, his own hands effortlessly working flowers into a similar chain.

"Why?" He asked, smiling easily at the child. She was so much like Rin sometimes that it hurt. He missed her. Nishiko turned at the sound of his voice, her eyes squinting as a smile overtook her round face. "Do you wish to marry soon?"

"No," Nishiko blushed lightly, obviously lying. "I want to grow strong. I want powers, too." She wasn't lying there. Just last summer she'd begun her priestess training. Every demon could smell the purity coming off of her in waves. No matter how messy the girl got playing in the gardens, she always smelled of this clean light, like nothing could darken her soul. Shippou had been amazed when he first felt her pulse of power upon meeting her when she was just an infant. Nishiko was definitely a strong priestess, meant for ridding the world of filthy, impure demons. Shippou could only hope she also kept her heart open to the idea that demons weren't all bad. After all, she was raised by the strongest demon in the Western territory, if not all of Japan.

"I'm sure Lord Sesshomaru has that covered, Nishiko. You can do whatever you want with your life." Seeing the uncertainty across her face, he added, "Lord Sesshomaru will be happy either way, as long as you're happy too." That seemed to assure her. Nishiko smiled brightly at Shippou and lied back in the grass, humming softly to herself.

"I wanna marry my best friend." Nishiko declared happily after another round of her short tune, and began once again, as if she hadn't said anything at all. Shippou was happy. Nishiko was his entire world. He missed his little brother more than words can say, but he knew the oath he'd made upon becoming the Western Lord's student. His life was dedicated to his training and Nishiko. From sunrise until sunset, with a brief hour long break midday, he was beaten around by the Generals of the army, and Sesshomaru, too. His breaks, which became more frequent when Sesshomaru left for patrols around the border, varied often. Although his normal schedule was the day in and day out training, sometimes he was ordered to investigate outside of the Palace walls, but never outside the Western territory.

Just last Winter he was on watch of the southern border for a solid month, awaiting the arrival of some Lady to escort back to the Western Palace. They made no conversation on the trip back. However, Shippou had a feeling she was important enough that she'd be around for a while, and she had been. The very same Lady gliding through the gardens with her betrothed was the Lady he'd escorted to the Palace. He knew not her name, but her scent, and it tempted him often. She was a demure demoness, far too young in human maturation to be mated, but in her demonic age, she was old enough, if not half a century behind her fellow demon kind when it came to courting. So far, the betrothed pair had only held hands, and only when they were alone enough, like now, when no one was approaching them, but obviously in plain sight. Shippou inhaled as she and her suitor made their way around the cherry blossom trees once more, going around a second time in the gardens. He could swear she was doing it to torture him. It'd been a while since he'd last seeded a woman. Sesshomaru had made it clear he couldn't bed any female, regardless of rank, within the Western Palace. He detested drama, and though Shippou had arrived clean of a woman's scent, Sesshomaru knew foxes. They were mischievous and at the peek of their third tail, became overbearingly sexual, their libidos reaching greater heights than any other tail addition. And having quit the fox school in favor of protecting Nishiko, Shippou had been stunted the past six years, his tail growth at a stalemate; stuck as a three tailed fox.

Inuyasha and Eiji traveled South, making their way from island to island. For the most part, the water dragons they'd come across, the mermaids, and the multitude of half demons that roamed the South were kind and lived in peace. The humans amongst the land too, were also mild in temper, and at most, distrustful, until they heard Inuyasha's tale. Having been the one to free a large group of half demons from one of the smaller islands years before, his presence was favorable and considered a blessing in some areas along the coast. Eiji grew confused as the days went on, waiting for a feeling of darkness or great power to wash over them, but the atmosphere of the South gave off a feeling that reminded him of his mother. It was spiritual, but it also harbored many demons, and half demons, the acceptance of the people having merged the two enemies and made them allies. Kagome would have loved to have seen the acceptance between the races. It was an interesting sight to see, and yet it also perturbed Inuyasha greatly. He was on edge the entire time, leaving no stone unturned. His erratic behavior left Eiji exhausted, always pushing to travel longer and longer each day, running the boy down to nothing with morning scouting and evening training. Regardless, they came across nothing. No bandits worth slaughtering, what with the population of kindhearted demons and half demons being able to hold their own against any who came to disturb the villages. There were no evil witches or mad with power holy folk, not even a possessed soul being puppeted into evil doing. Taking their leave of the South a few months later, at last at a much slower pace, did their peaceful visit come to an end.

It was early still, a little before noon when the chilly autumn day, basked in pale sunshine became a day Eiji would never forget. Their trek was light, going a human's pace as the two were reluctant to leave the easy aura of the South. Having made it through the last village, going North again, they only had about a day's journey until they were back in Eastern territory. Eiji relished the thought of the stew his Aunt Sango would make upon his arrival. She knew how much he loved her cooking. Oddly enough, Eiji missed his slayer family. He missed sparring with Hatsu and Sango, teasing Hiina, and doing chores with Hisao. He even missed cleaning the head house with Miroku and Kohaku, and picking herbs for their healer. That last task reminding him much of the time he spent with his mother, singing future songs and learning about the healing properties of plants. He may resent his mother's death always hovering over everything his family did, but he couldn't deny his love for her. Having been so young when she died, he didn't remember much, but he did remember her warmth and laughter, the feel of her arms around him, and the songs she'd sing to him, along with the stories of the future.

Then it happened so fast, Eiji didn't know what to make of it. One second he's content in his memories of the woman who carried him and loved him endlessly, and the next there's this charred, nearly seven feet tall, hellish demon with his giant hand through his father's chest. Inuyasha gasped, blood spilling in rivers from the deadly wound, and reacted with a speed that assured Eiji of his triumph. Inuyasha slashed the wrist through his chest and amputated the demon's hand in one blow. Eiji backed away from the fight, already knowing this was a battle for his father. This was the demon they'd been looking for. However, Eiji stayed alert, prepped for battle with his spear in hand.

With distance between Inuyasha and the monster, he unsheathed his tetsusaiga and pointed to the beast before him. Inuyasha could smell the familiarity of the demon, but he wasn't certain this was Kagome's murderer. His kind had definitely been the ones to attack Edo, and that alone was enough cause for Inuyasha's vengeance.

"Tell me, did you kill the Shikon priestess?" Inuyasha ordered, his sword the implied threat, "Tell me or else!" Only the demon with apparent third degree burns covering every inch of his body did not respond. Instead, he averted his gaze to Eiji at the tree line, and huffed in affirmation. His intentions clear, Inuyasha pounced to divert his attention. "Did you kill my wife?" Inuyasha shouted as he swiped at the demon's core, pushing him away from Eiji's hiding spot. The demon bled, but he did not cry in pain, nor did he answer Inuyasha's question. He attacked back with his long arms, scraping his talon-like claws into Inuyasha's side, more blood spurting from his body and streaming to the ground. Now with every breath he took, Inuyasha's ribs came and went with each heave. Eiji had seen his father fight before, many times over the past year now, some fights tougher than others, but never had his father ended up this wounded in his presence. In the stories of his parents and their defeat of Naraku, there were many close calls that he knew of, but the sight before him, seeing his father so weak, froze him. Eiji knew that if his father was having difficulty surviving, then he would, too, but he couldn't let that stop him. He'd already lost one parent, and he wasn't prepared to lose another.

Charging the demon as he stood over Inuyasha's form, trying to hold his side together, Eiji made his move. Stabbing the demon's thigh with his staff, he let go of his weapon and back-flipped to retreat, but was caught by the ankle midair and thrown into a thick tree, his back snapping on impact. The pain was unbearable, but only for a minute as his body began healing at once, allowing him relief from the throbbing ache. When Eiji opened his eyes again, his father was in combat with the demon, but he was slower, and weaker. With every swing of his sword, he lost more and more blood from both wounds in his torso. Eiji needed to assist. Sitting himself up, he prepared to throw the daggers he kept behind his hip and waited for the opportune time to strike. Seeing an opening as his father dodged a fatal blow by sliding under the monster's legs, he threw his daggers as hard as he could and landed one in his throat and the other in his right eye. The demon bled, but didn't recoil in pain or even cry out. With the demon's added delay in realizing it had been wounded, Inuyasha managed to slice his back open. The two were back to throwing blows at one another, cutting each other with their claws and the tetsusaiga. Eiji watched for a minute before realizing his spear had been pulled from the demon's thigh and was now lying a few feet away from the battle. Deciding to go for it, he dashed into the fray and dodge rolled a hard punch from the demon that made a crater in the earth.

"Stay back!" Inuyasha warned his son. His interference was a distraction, leaving Inuyasha with yet another deep cut, this time in his dominant arm, weakening the hand that led his sword. Inuyasha crumpled in pain, leaving him open for yet another fatal blow. "Eiji, no!" He called to his son, panic and fear evident on his face as Eiji ran to his father's aid, spear in hand. The demon was prepared to behead Inuyasha with a fierce downward swipe of his claws when Eiji came into reach. Spear extended, he pierced the demon through the heart, and again, this didn't effect the beast. Not phased by the lethal attack, the demon changed the direction of Inuyasha's impending doom and shredded Eiji from shoulder to hip with three marks across his entire torso. Eiji fell immediately, bleeding helplessly between his father and the demon. Inuyasha rose instantly with a new fire in his heart. No one hurts his boy, his only biological child, the one baby he had so cautiously protected until now. He felt ashamed, but nothing could cloud his rage for the scalded creature before him. "You bastard!" Inuyasha ran straight for the demon, all consequences behind him, his life be damned. He slashed a the demon's hip, aiming to amputate another limb, but was unsuccessful. He blocked an incoming attack with his tetsusaiga and swiped again.

Eiji phased in and out as he watched his father lose the battle. He had never been this hurt before, or seen so much of his own blood pool around him. The pain was searing, and it overrode his fear, pulling him back to unconsciousness, but he fought it. He needed to help his father, but how? Eiji could barely concentrate, gasping for air as his lungs filled with blood. And then darkness overtook him. When he woke again, his vision was still fading and lucid. Searching for his father's red clad body was easy enough, although nauseating to do. A short distance away, his father was on his hands and knees, bleeding into the earth just like him, his sword out of reach, and the demon taking his final strike into Inuyasha's back. This was it, he realized, his father was about to die.

Tears seeped from his eyes in a steady stream, leaving clear track marks horizontally across his dirty face and into his hairline. Eiji couldn't move, could barely breathe, and was entirely helpless. The demon's single hand knifed into his father's back, open handed, and ripped out his heart effortlessly. Inuyasha shrieked in agony, shaking on all fours, and then collapsed face down. Blinded by his own tears and the fuzziness of his brain, Eiji's last vision of his father was watery and confusing. The demon seemed to be absorbing something from his father, a shining gust entering the demon's mouth from his lifeless father. What had he done? Eiji couldn't have even guessed. Heaving still, he sobbed into the earth, catching the demon's attention. However, when he looked over, he showed no interest in finishing him off. The demon turned and disappeared into the forest, his business through.

Eiji's last thought before losing consciousness was that he hoped the scavengers stayed away long enough for him to rest. He may not have loved his father very much, but he did respect him mostly, and that meant he deserved a proper burial, along side his wife and children, under the God Tree. Then there was darkness, and he sighed a shaky breath. Yes, maybe the Gods will grant him time to rest. Maybe something, no matter how small, would happen in his favor. If nothing else, he wished this.


	6. Chapter 6

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yes, I am well aware it's been FOREVER since I last updated. I've got 1,000,000 excuses, but I do promise to make up for all the favorite character deaths, for those of you who are really sad and/or pissed with me for killing off our two main baes. Also, I would like to address a reoccurring theme here with Shippou. He's a real bastard when it comes to love. He thinks a lot with his tail, and I don't mean the three coming from his rear end. I've also noticed that I've totally rushed through the set up for this story and for that I apologize. I was really excited about getting to the meat of this story, which is all about Eiji.

Please don't give up on me, I am trying here.

So don't forget to follow and review!

XOXO

Archersploosh

 _ **TOWARD TOMORROW**_

 **Nine Years Later**

"Shippou, look!" Nishiko giggled, watching the dog demon children play in the courtyard. Her once tinkling childish laughter was now rounded with puberty, her voice easing into the mature baritones it would become. Shading her eyes from the sun, she observed the game they were playing. It was one she knew well from her sideline onlooking. As a little girl, she wasn't accepted by many in her home land, the Western Fortress. Although many didn't take to her presence, she wasn't without friends. There was always her Lord, Sesshomaru, his star pupil, the three tailed fox demon of Edo, Shippou, and her two mentors, Jaken the imp, and her more spiritual guide, Priestess Momoko.

.

"Hm?" Shippou quit fiddling with his tails, trying to untangle them, and peered past the sunset at the silver headed children playing. His easy smile dipped some, and instead he averted his gaze to more pleasurable sights, such as his ward. Nishiko watched the children a moment more, and Shippou took the chance to really let her beauty sink in. Against the glowing setting sun, with the sky's neon rays framing her slight form, she was breathtaking. She was tall for her age, the startling fifteen year she was, unlike her mother who was horrendously short. Her long dark hair, once wild in adolescence, had turned to a waterfall of black silk. For training she usually wore it in a tight braid, but on days like today, when they were nothing more than errand dogs for their Lord, she wore her hair loose, her bangs parting at the middle and grown out to cup her heart shaped face. He knew she was far too young to be eying the way he was, but he couldn't help himself these days. It felt like yesterday she was only as tall as his hip. It was as if he'd looked away for a second and turned back to find the stunning young woman before him, and now he was hooked. Shippou's eyes traveled down her slender figure, noticing her perky breasts and the curve of her waist. There had been times in the past few weeks that he'd gotten glimpses of more, and he recalled those lucky times fondly.

.

Last week she wanted to go swimming and they'd gone to the lake in the gardens in the early morning when no one was out enjoying the landscape. Shippou himself didn't partake in the wet activity, complaining about having to groom his tails after, but with his back turned, she swam. He'd only turned for a second, meaning to call back that he could smell someone approaching, but in those two seconds, he saw her glistening back, hair over one shoulder, and the top curve of what he could only assume was a perfect ass. That memory was his favorite. There were others, too. Moments after she'd been injured in training and was made to remove her clothing for treatment and occasions like that, where in the moment are lacking in the sexual content, but later are turned over many times in his mind.

.

"We should head back," Nishiko lifted the basket of herbs higher on her hip, "Lord Sesshomaru said he we have to dress nice for dinner tonight." Wiping her free hand on the her priestess garb, Nishiko noted that she needed a bath before dinner. Not that she was covered in dirt, but she'd grown to know that a demon could smell even the slightest scents that cling to clothing.

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"Any idea what it's about?" Shippou asked, snapped from his reverie.

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"I was hoping you could tell me." Nishiko sighed, and took the lead back to the Palace. She wasn't sure what was up with Shippou lately, but she hoped whatever it was, that it faded quickly. The past few months he'd been in a daze and she was finding it harder and harder to get him to concentrate on the task at hand. Maybe it was another girl. She wanted to groan at that. Shippou proved to be the biggest rule breaker in all of the West. First, she'd heard plenty about her nurse maid and how Shippou had an affair with her up until the young woman's job was fulfilled. Now it wouldn't have been such a problem had her nurse maid been single, but she wasn't, and with the affair came a broken marriage. Shippou was still guilty over how things had ended, but he never seemed regretful. After her, there were rumors of Shippou fornicating with the first priestess that had come to train her, and just about any woman who had been called by the Western Lord to attend to her needs.

.

With these stories always came this sharp pain in her chest. Nishiko swallowed hard at the description of the nurse maid. She'd overheard some guards gossip about the time they walked in on Shippou and her screwing in the bathhouse. Apparently Shippou became infatuated with her after watching her breast feed once and was blinded by his lust for her full breasts. The activities in which the two performed left Nishiko confused for a couple years, until she'd learned more about sex from her many rotating tutors, all of which were female, and all of which had fallen prey to Shippou's lustful ways. Shaking off the tension in her chest, she entered the palace.

.

"I'll see you at dinner," Shippou handed Nishiko his own basket of herbs, half filled compared to hers, and hurriedly left, his tails swishing behind him.

.

"Weirdo," She rolled her eyes.

In the East, Eiji sat in the gate towers with Ken, wearing a slayer uniform like his many comrades in the village. His custom colored armor was navy blue. While he normally wore regular training robes, customary blue and white in the village, when he travels outside of the slayer village on his own, he donned his father's fire rat robe. The only difference between the two who wore it was that Eiji preferred to wear tabi socks and sandals, and lacked the beads of subjugation.

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"Lady Sango tells me you're heading off today," Ken yawned. He was just arriving for the beginning of his shift at the tower to relieve Eiji of his post. "Going anywhere special this time?"

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"Mm," Eiji shrugged, crouching at the lip of the fencing. "If I go to the sea, I'll bring you a mermaid." He joked, and dropped down from the tower to the earth below, landing like a trained cat.

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"Show off!" Ken called down, cupping his hands around his mouth.

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"Keh!" Eiji scoffed, and made his way across the town, avoiding those who regularly bothered him. Just this once, he'd like to escape without a send off worthy of military status. Ever since he'd left with his father years ago, Sango worried over him leaving town like it was his first time going out alone every time. True, Eiji's travels with his father had been life threatening and traumatizing, but he didn't quite feel that way. He remembered things differently.

.

For instance, Eiji remembered respecting his father, but never really loving him. He remembered always being ignored in Edo, with Shippou being his parents' favorite son. Even his own name showed true to his second place in their hearts. It drove him mad sometimes, knowing that his human, priestess mother and half demon father loved their adopted full blooded fox demon son more than the son they bore themselves. Then again, that's what it's like to be a half-breed, right? Eiji's mood soured further as he recalled many things about his life in Edo. His father always training Shippou, sending Shippou to fox schooling, always being so happy when Shippou would come home, his mother making Shippou's favorite meal all the time. They always overlooked him. At some point, Eiji had grown to hate his parents, the memories they'd left him. It was their fault. They couldn't just love him and accept him as is.

.

Arriving back home, Eiji stopped to change into his fire rat robes and wash his face. Staring into the reflection in the water of the bowl, he observed his blurry self. Same gold eyes as his father, black hair like his mother, but cropped short to better disguise his ears when he ventured into an unfriendly village. Ready to go, and eager to leave before Sango spotted him, Eiji dashed for the back of the house where a path to the private hot springs revealed itself. He was about to launch himself over the house and into the trees when his sensitive hearing picked up something he wished it hadn't.

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"Oh," A moan came from the springs, "Gods, yes!"

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"Gross," Eiji muttered, rolling his eyes. Leave it to Hiina to once again ditch training to go sleeping around. He often heard her through the walls or within the trees, romping with someone she couldn't bring home to the family. It always got him wondering about his future. If he could ever really experience love and love making with someone. In human years, he was nineteen. Physically, his appearance was that of a fifteen year old boy, maybe sixteen. No one even had a clue how his aging worked or if it was different for half demons and quarter demons. Even with the time Inuyasha and Eiji had spent in the South, neither had come across a quarter demon. Not that anyone was sure of exactly what Eiji was. There was no true measure of strength or skill to say so, leaving his life to be full of blind milestones.

Dinner at the Western Palace had gone smoothly, like every formal dinner that had ever taken place before this one. Nishiko was bored senseless during these political gatherings. Her presence was entirely unnecessary, but pleased guests regardless knowing they could at least keep their eyes on her. Some were even intrigued by her, and yet, no one ever bothered speaking to her. Nishiko was taught when she was little to follow Sesshomaru closely, unless he gestured otherwise. Like most of her life, she was a constant liability for him. Shippou told Nishiko about her mother, Rin, and how she was basically Sesshomaru's daughter the same way he was Inuyasha and Kagome's son. She loved the stories Shippou told about these people she'd never met. She just couldn't see how her Lord Sesshomaru could be loving and kind to anyone when all she'd felt towards him was trust and a sense of safety whereas she was sure her mother must have felt loved by him.

.

Shippou couldn't tear his eyes off of her. Nishiko was elsewhere at dinner, too absorbed in her own thoughts to notice the attention he was giving her. She was beautiful. This time she was dressed in a silk kimono, dolled up like a hime to show the West's guests that she was harmless and entirely too feminine to be powerful. The soft pinks and lavender of the kimono went well with the red and violet sash at her waist. Her hair fell down her back like a curtain and her bangs were clipped back with twin floral hair pins on each side of her head, the tassels clinking together with each turn of her head.

.

All through dinner, he stared. Shippou was hypnotized by her every move. For every bite she took, he died a little more inside. He could only imagine the other things she could put in her mouth. After taking a sip of her tea, she licked her red painted lips and he nearly lost it. That gentle flick of her pink tongue nearly undid him. He was doomed, he was sure, lusting after the one thing Sesshomaru had to call his own and protect.

.

After dinner, the three followed the guests out to the front entrance and said their goodbyes at the gates. Nishiko and Shippou were entirely lost in themselves, and kept their position as mere followers of the Lord, never needing to verbally contribute whatsoever. Sesshomaru swore his protection onto the Lords, as was customary when parting with other members of the cardinal ruling. The three demons bowed their respects and turned to exit the open gates when one weakly knelt between his brothers.

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"Brother?" The right one called, reaching down to his youngest brother. In the blink of an eye the black haired, green eyed demon was no more, and in his place stood a large leopard, towering over everyone. While he wasn't as tall as Sesshomaru in his transformed state, he was still rather large and took up most of the court yard. His eyes, once the unnatural neon green, were now a vibrant red, complimenting the golden hues and dark spots of his coat.

.

Before anyone could react, the large cat swiped his deadly claws towards Nishiko. The paw was so large, there was no chance of a miss. Too panicked to call upon her reiki, she was frozen in place. Shippou acted without thinking, reaching for the tetsusaiga at Sesshomaru's hip and withdrew the blade, transforming as he unsheathed it and swung the massive sword hard. Sesshomaru's eyes widened a fraction of an inch, his sudden confusion clearing with this new knowledge. After Inuyasha's death, tensaiga had called to him, pulsing with a need to find tetsusaiga. Curious, he followed, only to discover his half brother's corpse, and his nearly dead nephew. At the time, he'd only taken the sword and had sent Shippou out to care for his adoptive brother and father's corpse. Now he was beginning to question whether or not it was right to hold onto a sword that was not gifted to him. Perhaps the sword would be better in another's hands.

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"Wind Scar!" Shippou whipped tetsusaiga's energy at the leopard's incoming paw and shredded the beast's arm off. The attack knocked the leopard demon off his feet, his brothers too stunned to comprehend what had just occurred. Now that the immediate threat was taken care of, Sesshomaru stepped in, slashing the demon's throat with his poison whip.

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"Lord Sesshomaru," The eldest brother averted his eyes from his deceased sibling. "I apologize for this. This was certainly not planned, I assure you."

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"Yes," The second brother bowed his apologies, "We had no idea this would happen. He's only ever transformed twice before in his life and both times he did so out of self preservation, really."

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"We're sorry," The eldest bowed, too, "And we beg for our lives."

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"Leave," Sesshomaru's eyes never left the leopard's corpse, refusing to let the elder brothers read into his expression and assume his weaknesses. They left without hesitation.

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"Are you okay?" Shippou dropped tetsusaiga immediately, opting to grab hold of Nishiko's shoulders, examining her appearance and scent for any harm.

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"I'm fine, I'm fine," Nishiko let out the breath she'd been holding when the leopard was about to strike. "Don't worry about me."

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"Nishiko," Sesshomaru's deep voice was sharp in the still night. "Let's go."

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"Ah," Shippou lifted the tetsusaiga gingerly, holding the rusty sword out to his lord as if returning a stolen item, "I'm sorry, Lord Sesshomaru. My bad?" He smiled hopefully. Instead of taking the sword, though, Sesshomaru offered the scabbard to him instead. "What?"

.

"Leave." This time, he did let his gaze pierce the subject of his words. Only this time, leaving didn't spare anyone. With one word, he exiled Shippou.

.

"My Lord!" Nishiko gasped, "Now just wait a minute, he just saved my life!" She stomped a foot at her guardian, "He's saved me from danger many times before this, surely you didn't wish me dead just now!"

.

"Silence," Sesshomaru cursed to himself. He should have known this was coming. He should have kept them apart. Perhaps Rin had softened him some. Now he was merely paying the price.

.

"No! I will not be silent!" Panic welled up inside her as she realized what was happening. Nishiko was losing her best friend, the very man who had spent the entirety of her life devoted to her. He'd promised Rin's resting soul that he'd watch over her, and now he was being exiled for keeping that oath. "Maybe I should go, too!"

.

"No," Shippou sheathed tetsusaiga. "You need to stay here, where its safe." He'd figured it out, what he'd done wrong. In one thoughtless moment, unaware to even himself, he'd proved his love for Nishiko. He lacked the human blood necessary to wield the tetsusaiga, and yet, his palm didn't burn with the sword's resistance. Shippou had harnessed the power of tetsusaiga with his will alone, his devotion to his human love, Nishiko, and his desire to protect her had allowed him access to the blade's strength. He was in love with her, and it was because of this that he had to leave.

.

"What do you mean?" Nishiko closed the distance between herself and Shippou and latched onto his free hand, "You've got to be kidding me, Shippou! You can't leave! What about your training? You're my best friend." Those words hit home. Shippou recalled a moment in the gardens when Nishiko was just a child. She wanted to marry her best friend. While this gave him shivers thinking she might love him, too, he couldn't allow himself to feel hope. Shippou had seen first hand what it was like for Inuyasha, always being mistreated for his mixed blood. He couldn't, no, wouldn't allow himself the pleasure of filling her with a child. Especially a half blooded child.

.

"Sesshomaru is right," Shippou gripped her tiny hand in his, "I should go now, protect my brother, since something is obviously amiss here. You're perfectly safe here with Lord Sesshomaru, but I must go. Now."

.

"Are you sure?" tears filled Nishiko's eyes as she realized he might not be coming back for some time, "And when everything is settled?"

.

"I shall continue my training," Shippou locked eyes with his Lord, admitting a fib with his soft, apologetic stare. Sesshomaru nodded, accepting the lie for Nishiko's sake. "But I have to leave now. Goodbye, Nishiko."

.

"Goodbye Shippou." She hugged him tightly around the waist, burying her tear stained face into his chest. He held her gently around the shoulders for a moment and released her petite form. He would always remember her this way, gowned as a hime and her eyes full of love and sorrow for him. He sighed and nodded to Sesshomaru, wordlessly thanking him for the years of training and guidance, and transformed himself into his pink balloon and floated off over the stone wall. He would miss her dearly, especially now that he was aware of his love for her, but he would force himself to continue on. Her lifespan was only a mere fraction of his, and some day soon she would be gone forever.

Eiji took to the West this time, traveling along the borders, but never crossing into his uncle's territory. He was aware of his uncle's dislike of his family. As a boy, he idolized his power, and now he feared it the way anyone of his family did, with respect. Eiji was a lazy traveler, often taking afternoon naps or exploring caves instead of offering his strength to any towns he passed by and through. And though he didn't feel like he really belonged anywhere, Eiji almost always stopped by the wolves' den to visit Kouga, Ayame, and their two kids. He felt he owed them his strength, no matter how little in comparison to theirs, because of the wolf they'd sent to guide him to the slayer village when he was only four. Without the wolf, Eiji actually might have been seriously hurt or killed by the three travelers he'd passed along the last town before the slayers'.

.

Reclining back along a branch high up in the trees, Eiji thought over where he'd go this time. He mostly stuck to the East and South, but with the changing of seasons, the surrounding scents altered as well, always requiring that he would make a round or two of the cardinal territories to familiarize himself with their borders once more. Maybe after going along the West and East border, he'd go South for some time. Mulling over the ideal route, Eiji took notice of a new scent approaching from above. Feeling overpowered, he stayed put, finding that demons typically ignored him if they had a destination and he stayed out of their path. Just as the scent was coming over him, a cloud followed, and stayed.

.

"I ain't lookin' to fight," Eiji called up, moving to sit up and directly face whoever had chosen to make a pit stop here. "So move along, ya damn blimp!" There was a pop and rolling fog followed as a familiar red haired fox demon landed elegantly on his toes on the branch before him. Shippou smiled, observing Eiji. "Oh, great, I should have known it was you." He rolled his eyes and sat upright, his legs straddling the branch. "You stink of those freakin' flowers all over the West." Eiji swung a leg over the sturdy branch and dropped the twenty feet down to the ground below, and immediately sniffed about, ignoring Shippou as he followed.

.

"I'm going to assume 'blimp' is a mom word, huh?" Shippou waved off his younger brother's obvious dislike of him, "But do I really smell like the gardens? Huh, I suppose I do. I guess I stopped noticing. Nishiko absolutely loves it there, always dragging me out with her. Not that I don't go willingly, that is, because I'd follow her just about anywhere, gladly. Although, I don't think I'm much allowed anymore. Did you know Uncle doesn't like his things being touched?"

.

"Quit it, Shippou!" Eiji gave up on finding his favored direction with his nose and faced his annoying brother, ready to tear into him. "Why the hell are you even here?"

.

"Well, if you were paying attention," Shippou knocked on Eiji's head, making a passing joke at his intelligence. Eiji growled. "Uncle doesn't like it when others touch his things! And so I suppose I played with a sword without asking and now he doesn't even want it, so perturbed by my scent on the hilt, and don't you just think he is being the biggest baby? For Gods sake, I only used it once and all of a sudden, bye-bye Western Palace, demure maids, engaged and oh-so-sweet Ladies, and let's not forget to mention the food. Sesshomaru is a man of quality, I'm telling you!"

.

"What the hell are you getting at, you lunatic?" Eiji shoved his brother away. It was after some distance was between them did he recognize the sword at Shippou's hip. "Wait, is that," Eiji's anger quieted a moment, his own thoughts consuming him. It was his father's sword, "That's tetsusaiga."

.

"It is. Uncle had it." Shippou's forced bubbly attitude faded, his babbling done.

.

"And now you do," Eiji's eyes were glued to the sword. Why would Shippou have it? Why not him? One has to have human blood to wield the damn thing and yet his own uncle had given away the sword to a full demon, one that wasn't even really part of their family. Jealousy clouded Eiji's mind and soured his already biased views of family. "Tch," Eiji turned away, refusing to deal with this. He was going to the South and that was that.

.

Shippou didn't take the hint, and if he did, he didn't care. The last time he'd seen his brother was a few years ago, right after Inuyasha died. He was granted passage outside of the West and told to find his brother in the South. Sesshomaru gave him three days. If he wasn't back by the end of the third day, then he was never to return to the West, and his protection would be lost. If Sesshomaru ever found him, he was dead.

.

He remembered seeing Eiji's broken, bleeding body crumpled up in the forest. Finding Inuyasha, decaying and picked apart by scavengers had scarred him in ways he didn't think he'd ever recover from. It took him a day to reach their location, and another to move them back to Edo. From Edo it was a half day's journey to the gates of the Western Fortress. Shippou used every minute he had to treat Eiji's wounds, make a proper grave for Inuyasha, and to alert Sango and Miroku with a fox trick that Eiji would need assistance. The entire ordeal was exhausting, with Shippou at his limits from the training he'd left that last day in the West, having to rush and hunt, relocate each body, care for them, and still have time to make it back to the West. And all the while, Eiji was unconscious. He'd lost so much blood. Another day bleeding out like that, exposed to any predator out there, he would have died. Shippou had never been so shaken up before. Seeing Edo destroyed was one thing, the bodies already buried, but this was entirely different. Shippou had wished he'd gone his whole life without seeing Inuyasha's rotting and bloated body, sticky and crusted, and picked at by other demons. He was glad Eiji didn't have to see that, but he always wondered how much he'd seen of the battle that caused it.

.

"You're tall." Shippou commented. So much had changed since then. He looked so much like Inuyasha now. His face, his mannerisms, his ears, and even his canine teeth were all his. It seemed all he'd inherited from Kagome was her black hair.

.

"Stuff it." Eiji stomped forward, knowing it wasn't even worth trying to outrun him.

.

"And a lot like your father, apparently!" Shippou shrugged, unperturbed. He was used to Inuyasha. Hell, hearing Eiji talk was almost comforting.

.

"Screw this!" Eiji turned on his brother suddenly, punching his jaw. Shippou stepped back to regain balance, holding his jaw. While the single hit was hard, it wouldn't take more than a minute to heal. "Why don't you go the hell away! I don't want ya near me, got it?" Eiji ran off then, hoping he'd be allowed some space.

.

An hour passed before Eiji and Shippou were shoulder to shoulder again. Eiji made no move to acknowledge his brother, and neither did Shippou. Another hour passed and Shippou was more aware of the destination Eiji had in mind.

.

"Do you come here often?" Shippou asked, his arms folded in his silk teal sleeves. Along the shoulders and wrists of his top were Sesshomaru's floral emblem in white. His bottoms were navy, his sash navy and white striped, and his boots black, like his chest plate. Shippou looked regal in the sunlight, his chin high. Eiji felt like he looked the part of the second son. The upbringing showed, at least.

.

"No." Eiji's ears twitched with the sounds of the forest around them. He was alert. Edo must scare him now, Shippou thought.

.

"So why now?" Shippou kept his questions short, knowing he was already walking on thin ice with Eiji. The boy had a temper, and a short fuse at that, just like his father.

.

"Ain't it obvious?" Eiji's eyes never left the horizon. Coming up over the hill, they passed the bone eater's well. "Ma is gonna want to see you."

.

"Of course," Shippou's heart softened. At least she still held a place in Eiji's heart. They continued for a few moments more in silence, and entered the clearing that held the goshinboku. "Huh," Around the tree were small nameless headstones, all with grass grown over them. In front, below the scarred bark, were two larger headstones. On the right, Kagome. The left, Inuyasha. "It looks as if someone has been here." Their parents' resting places were donned with flowers and the area around the graves had been swept of any branches and leaves. "Your doing?"

.

"No," Eiji sniffed, "Hiina. Last week, I think."

.

"Mm," Shippou nodded, "How are they, the twins?" He hadn't thought about Hiina in so long. Before he'd left for the West, he'd been so in love with her for a few years. She was a bright young girl back then, only a year or two older than Nishiko now. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to see her again.

.

"The same as ever." Eiji nodded to the graves, "Now quit stallin' and go pay your respects."

.

Shippou nodded and walked forward, keenly aware that Eiji was giving him space to speak with their mother in private. While he wasn't sure of what to say exactly, he knew he wished her peace in the afterlife, hoping she was looking down with joy in her heart over her two sons reunion. Kneeling to the graves, Shippou surveyed the area, trying to remember exactly how many children Kagome and Inuyasha had lost. There was one, he remembered, a tiny girl, blue eyed and silver haired. He was there the moment Kagome dropped, clutching her belly.

.

He didn't want to think of his lost siblings. He had Eiji to care for; the second son. Standing once more, he turned to his little brother, nodding in gratitude. He always wanted to come and pay his respects to his adoptive parents.

.

"Eiji," Shippou follows after his little brother, "I just want you to know that you're not alone."

.

"Tch," Eiji scoffs, never even looking at Shippou, "Right, because growing up with a bunch of humans, without my family, means I'm not alone."

.

"You don't have to be." Shippou holds a hand onto tetsusaiga. He knew the sword was never meant to be his. It only allowed him that once to save Nishiko.

.

"Don't give me that crap. You're not even my blood." Eiji bit out, growing frustrated. He'd been alone so long, he almost craved the pain of staying that way. He never wanted to lose someone again. Watching his father die had been far more agonizing than anything he could remember. Shippou sighed. He had hoped to grow closer to his family, but it seemed Eiji wasn't ready to let himself feel that sort of love yet. "So why don't you go crawl your way back to the fucking West, Shippou."

.

"Only if you'll take this," In one swift movement, Shippou removed the fang from his hip and put the sword into Eiji's hands. "I'll leave you be." And with a blink of Eiji's eyes, Shippou was gone.

.

"Stupid bastard," Eiji grumbled, staring off ahead in the direction Shippou's scent trailed off to. Taking a moment to closely study his grandfather's fanged sword, he frowned. It wasn't like he hadn't seen it up close before, but the scent itself had changed. He could still feel the power emanating from the sword, but it was different, changed somehow. The tetsusaiga smelled floral, just like Shippou, but also much like his uncle, striking fear into his spine. Not a trace of Inuyasha was left on it. "Hmph."

.

Eiji tucked the sword at his side and continued his trek forward. He had no place specific in mind, but he might as well explore. Who knows, maybe taking a visit to China wouldn't be such a bad idea. Eiji mulled over the thought, and dismissed it just as quickly. He would see all of Japan before going elsewhere. Perhaps there were more like him, mixed, but not quite sure of how halved their souls were. Eiji felt demonic. He knew for a fact he was at least a quarter demon, but he felt like so much more. His human side only contained so much of him, but it felt so equal. He would learn, someday. Eiji planned to find out exactly what he was, and what that meant for him.

Two weeks later, and Shippou was consumed by all that he had consumed. Full of liquor, food, and his desire sated in the belly of the town headman's daughter, he lied back against the floor. Panting with an easy smile across his face, flushed with the alcohol, he sighed.

.

"Oh, my beautiful girl, that was lovely," Shippou commended the young girl for her enthusiasm. She reminded him heavily of Hiina, being a headman's daughter and eager to please a surprise guest for the afternoon. However the girl's hair was oddly platinum blonde. She'd mentioned some time earlier that her mother came a great distance before settling here with her father. Perhaps she was from another continent. Shippou didn't care. "Tell me, do you think you could go another round later?" The petite girl giggled in response, the sweat on her bare chest glowing as it rose and sank with her light laughter. Before she could respond, there was a loud shriek coming from outside the house.

.

Shippou was up and dressed in seconds, his lover taking much longer to follow, as he rushed out the door. When a gust of wind whipping him in the face, he immediately knew the cause of someone's cry for help. Eiji. A few demonic strides forward and he was able to pick up the gist of what was going on just by listening in on the townspeople's conversations.

.

"Look, I said I would pay for it," Eiji shouted, holding a coin purse in front of a young woman. While she wasn't as pretty as the one he'd just laid, Shippou knew that had he not have found the headman's daughter, he would certainly have tried to bed this woman instead. She wore her hair the same way as Nishiko, and her breasts were nearly twice as large as Nishiko's. Perhaps this woman was a mother, breastfeeding? Shippou shook his head of lustful thoughts.

.

"You're a demon!" The woman declared, pointing accusingly at Eiji. Shippou sighed. He was well aware of this village's stance on demons. Just before entering, he'd used a glamor spell to alter his fangs, claws, and hide his tail. Poor Eiji didn't stand a chance with just a straw hat to hide his ears.

.

"Yeah and I'm just passing through, so if you just GIVE me the fucking food, then I'll get the hell out of here!" Eiji growled out, throwing his money at the girl's feet. "Stupid wench!" He snatched the wrapped rations off of her display cart and began marching off, only giving Shippou a glance over his shoulder. Shippou followed.

.

"Do you want to tell me what that was all about?" Shippou waited until they were just outside the village before speaking, as well as dropping his fox spell. His tails phased into view once more.

.

"Dumb bitch wouldn't sell me some food," Eiji shrugged, unwrapping his purchase. Picking at the cold cooked chicken and rice balls, he nodded at his brother. "You smell." Shippou smirked.

.

"That my dear brother, is the musk of satiated desire." Shippou knew this topic was squeamish for all virgins, Eiji included.

.

"And here I thought I could escape that stench when I left the slayers. Hiina is real people pleaser, you know." Shippou wanted to cringe. He could easily recall their night of passion and the scent of his claim clouding Hiina's natural, welcoming scent. The thought of anyone else's cum spilling from her swollen cunt disgusted him somewhat. He knew he wasn't her first, but a long time ago, he had hoped to be the last to ever fill her, spill inside her, and watch her swell with the growth of that love.

.

"Speaking of Hiina," Shippou was curious, "What all has come to pass in the slayers' village?"

.

"Why don't you just go and find out for yourself, dumb ass?" Eiji shot back, a mouth full of food, grumbling his speech.

.

"And why bother buying food from a human market when you could easily hunt and cook for yourself?" Shippou gave up on the topic of slayers. He might as well pester Eiji, maybe get him to open up.

.

"Women cook better." Eiji refused to let his feathers be ruffled. In all honesty, he'd planned on having a lazy evening, eating market food, sleeping early to rise before dawn so he could get decent distance from his current position at the center of Japan, down to the southern islands.

.

"Your dad wasn't the best at cooking," Shippou chuckled, "Once the Ramen ran out, he about lost his— " Shippou paused, his attention focusing to the left of their path.

.

"Mind? 'Cause it seems like you have too," Eiji smirked.

.

"We need to visit the wolves." Shippou's once teasing voice hardened. "When was the last time you saw Kouga?"

.

"Kouga? A week, maybe ten ago?" Eiji folded his food away and tuned his ears, trying to pick up whatever it was that's got Shippou going all Stoic Uncle Ice Heart. Nothing was out of the ordinary.

.

"Come," Shippou motioned with a jerk of his head and took off in the direction of the East. Seeing nothing but a red and blue blur, Eiji sighed. There's no way he could keep up.

.

"Show off," He muttered, taking off after his older brother.


End file.
